From literature to environmental science, Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students.

Using Google Earth or Google maps in your classroom can help create a visual context for the people and places your students learn about. Teachers can use these tools to demo upcoming units of study, or put the power of learning in the students' hands and let them engage in thinking skills that allow them to make conclusions based on time, distance. Plus, there are many other features within the software to help drive home meaningful insights.


Ok...cool. But what does this have to do with teaching literacy?

Answer: One word--LitTrips!
(er, well...kinda one word anyhow).

Great blog post on uses of Google Earth, including Literature Trips:
http://mpbreflections.blogspot.com/2010/03/interactive-learning-with-google-earth.html

Search for Language Arts lessons using Google Earth:
http://www.gelessons.com/lessons/

Go here for a sample .kmz Google Earth file on Shakespeare quote sites:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7004983/Shakespeare_quote_sites.kmz


How to use Google Earth:

Geo Education Home: http://www.google.com/educators/geo.html

Getting started with Google Earth: http://www.google.com/educators/start_earth.html

Creating Placemarks: http://earth.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=22364&topic=22367&answer=148142

Making tours: http://earth.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=22379

Embedding videos (and images): http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_youtube.html



How to use Google Maps:

To get the most out of Google Maps, you should make yourself a Google account: https://www.google.com/accounts/
Along with accessing certain features, having a free Google account allows you to save maps that you make.

To get started, check out the Maps User's Guide.



Here are some other ideas for using Google Earth in your classroom:

• Biology: Track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. See the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee blog here.
  
• Environmental Science: Have students check Alaska's global warming problems. See how the Sierra Club used Google Earth to depict this problem here.
• Global Awareness: Study the Crisis in Darfur with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's unprecedented project.
  
• History: Explore Tutankhamun's Tomb.
  
• Math: Explore distance, velocity, and wave properties of tsunamis.
  

Some More Google Earth/Map Resources to Keep You Going!!

10 Things You Didn't Know Google Maps Could Do

Video: New York City in 3D using Google Earth

Google Earth in the Science Classroom

Google Earth Hacks: Fun Stuff with Google Earth



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