Explore the Barrier Reef with Google Maps or Google Earth!

The newest edition to some of the fascinating resources in Google Maps/Earth, is the ability to tour the Ocean, complete with reef wildlife.  To explore some of these locations, you will be using “Street View.”  Here’s a quick video on how to use it:

Great Barrier Reef

Hawaii
There are other collections too, including the Amazon, Antarctica, Historic Italy, World Landmarks, Nasa, and much, much more.
You can visit all the collections here:
If you find anything that helps your teaching, leave a comment here and let us know!

Google Earth Updates!

The new Google Earth update offers some new features you might want to check out. It will take awhile for us to get the update in the labs (and we might wait until it’s out of beta), but meanwhile, with your teacher laptop and the Smartboard, you and your students can take advantage of these new features! (Feel free to download this new update by clicking here)

Historical imagery
Ocean floor and surface data
Simplified way to create tutors

Here’s a quick video outlining some of the cool, new features!

Google Earth Lesson Plans

passportcover.jpgHere’s another great resource from the VSTE conference: It’s a Small World After All…Integrating Google Earth into the Virginia Standards of Learning. Sarah Walters, an ITRT from Loudoun County, has put together a nice collection of lesson plans and files to use with Google Earth. My favorites that I’ve seen so far is the Passport for a Virginia Traveler that goes along with the regions of Virginia (4th Grade Virginia Studies). There are also files that go along with the books How to Make an Apple Pie by Marjorie Priceman and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, activities for migration, and even a Google Earth file for Ponce De Leon’s Voyage. Thanks, Sarah, for sharing all these great ideas!!