Going Cross Curricular with Geo Tools
Google's Geo tools
Writing Prompt
Go to Earth View, spin it, and drop Pegman at a random location.
Elementary -- Write a quick 5 sentence story with this location as the setting. Feel free to get create and use more than one photosphere if you'd like! Make sure to paste the link to your photosphere on your document.
Middle/High -- Write a story where the photosphere which appears is it's setting.
Open up the document to the right and press File --> Make a Copy and start writing.
Exploring Your Community
Open up the street view image to the right.
How long have the cranes been in downtown Lexington?
Discuss with your groups why these cranes are here?
What did this area look like before this construction project began? What happened to those businesses?
Why do you think it's taking so long to finish?
Interactive Writing Pieces
Have students type out personal narratives/short stories using Google Docs.
Copy and paste those paragraphs onto a new Google Site.
Have students find the locations/settings of their Personal Narratives on Google Maps/Street View.
Using this trick (click), embed those locations onto a Google Site. Ka-boom: interactive stories
Showing Change
Open up the Time Lapse to the right. Discuss with your partners for one minute what they think they're seeing.
Open up this document (click) and share some ways that you think we could stop this from happening in the future.
Time Travel in Street View
There are 12+ years of Google Street View images available. Many places have more than one image available from different locations, and you can browse all of them!
Tour Builder and Google Forms Adventure Puzzles
This is a tad advanced, but you can create a Google Form with Response Validation (in other words, students can't submit an item on a form until a certain condition is met) - Here's one as an example
Create a tour using the different spots along the way as hints. Click the image to the right to open up a sample tour with puzzles.
Open in Earth - Boom. Creation tool.
Solve the puzzles, make your way through the form.
Telling Stories with Tour Creator
Take a famous event from history, and have students search for where those events occurred.
Search for those locations/coordinates today using Tour Creator.
Have students record narration using online-voice-recorder.com and upload it to each individual location.
Publish it, " and have students submit the link to it.
My Maps
Google’s Free Map Creator
Add custom pins, layers, directions, and now distances!
Maps can then be shared just like Google Docs and edited by multiple users simultaneously
You can also view your creations in Google Maps
Maps can even be made “public”, where anyone in the world can have access to it.
Add images, videos, and/or paragraphs to each pin.
Draw polygons and calculate distance
Download or Upload KML files from/to Earth/Maps.
Scale Model of the Solar System
Using different digital tools, have the students recreate a scale model of the Solar System using everyday objects.
Here's a link to the questions they had to answer once the assignment was completed (click)
We watched this video for inspiration for our projects (click).
My Maps As Classroom Attachments
If students "Attach from Drive" a My Map onto a Google Classroom assignment, it automagically shares it with the teacher.
Students create map, you get to view it.
If students work collaboratively on the map, only the OWNER of the map can turn it in, so make sure the students' names are all on it
MyMaps As Templates
You can make My Map Templates!
Make your My Map where "Anyone with the link can view", Click here to view an example.
Place instructions on your My Map as to what you want your students to do (Continue drawing placemarks, finding angles, determining distances, etc).
Attach the link to your "My Map" as a Resource onto your Google Classroom assignment.
Students open up the My Map, press the "Three Dots", and then "Make a Copy"
Boomshakalaka: they now have a copy of your template and can submit their work.
Perimeter and Area
Have students locate your school on a map and draw polygons around the buildings
Estimate/Sum up/round the total, etc.
A "Short Story Setting" Map
Have one person in your group create a new Google Doc and make it where "anyone with the link can view".
Write a "brief" short story. Make sure in that story you mention it's "setting".
Open up the map to the right and press "edit"
Drop a pin on the map where the setting of your story took place and place the link to your Google Doc in the pin.
Retelling History
Have your students create maps showing famous events from history.
Students can submit these via Google Classroom (Add from Drive --> Map).
Social Studies Maps
Retell/recreate events from Social Studies/history to help students visualize and access the information better/clearer.
Creative Book Retelling
Take a picture book and retell it using pins with text from the story. Would make a great collaborative project!
Map Projections... Wait What?
Show students how spherical objects on a flat surface can appear different sizes that they actually are.
Cool assignment idea: outline your state, compare it to other states. How many Delawares do you think could fit inside California?
Or check, “The True Size Of…”
