The Whole World in Kids' Hands

Google Earth

The Whole World in Kids' Hands - Julia Tebbets, Sewickley Academy

http://earth.google.com/

Conference Handouts http://www.sewickley.org/~jtebbets/_lslab/teachers/teachers.html#conference

• PPT presentation
• PDF resources, code, links, etc.
• Scratch

Ideas and Tips:

• can customize placemarks
• faces layered on countries of origin with biographies on maps
• terrain layer (good for landforms)
• paths - track migration patterns, explorer projects
• layer Flash video (DE Streaming, YouTube, etc.)
• add area shapes (borders layer and labels already do this somewhat)
• users don't need to upgrade to Google Earth Plus - Google Earth needs to be updated frequently (at least once per year)
• switch to Sky view (view of the universe from the perspective of where you were on the earth) - has layers for Sky view as well
• tip - uninstall the old version before installing the new version
• Welcome to Sky layer - orientation with steps, link for the download that will provide the image overlays for the planets (black button on upper right menu)
• once downloaded, it will show up in the Places tab
• antique sky maps and constellations are included
• Fly To . . .

Tour Ideas

• historical events
• current events
• book report
• habitat, area (polygon tool)
• scavenger hunt by coordinates
• landmarks/landforms (terrain layer)
• migration or travel route (people and animals)
• latitude and longitude
• personal/family report
• weather report
• new layer called Weather
• clouds - updated every 3 hours
• radar - need to zoom in below the clouds
• symbol with forecast, temperature, hour-by-hour/10-day/month
• planets/space/constellations

Why might districts block Google Earth?

• there is a wiki component to Google Earth, but it is buried (Google Earth Community) - place where users can load their own information

Creating a Tour

• right-click on My Places and add folder
• data saved on local machine (hard drive) by user
• teach students to use the + to close the folder
• that way students can easily identify the content and placemarks they have created
• right-click on folder and Save As (tell students where to save their folders) - will save ALL content
• GE will only save what is actively highlighted
• students must open GD (their folder will appear in My Places), not KMZ file folder (if they do, it will open in Temporary Places)
• if image overlays are added in Temporary Places the path to the photos will be broken (red X)
• right-click and Save to My Places
• add Placemark by clicking on pushpin (can customize placemark)
• description box (no spell check)
• have students type their descriptions in a WP program before they begin working in GE (copy/paste)
• right-click > Properties to edit location, latitude, description, etc.
• image overlays (button)
• DE streaming - make it easy for image attribution
• download image, copy/paste citation in description box
• name, description, browse for image location (local file or URL address)
• placemarks
• right-click from My Places > properties
• can paste URL of Flash video (right-click on the Play button > copy shortcut)
• can also embed dynamic HTML (must be in Flash format)

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