Using Google Earth to Teach Important Historical Locations
Posted by Eric M. on October 10, 2006 in Social Studies
Google Earth can be a great tool for teaching about important locations in history and contemporary world events. You can create placemarks on the globe to mark the location of events and create a guided tour through related landmarks.
A perfect example is Sir Francis Drake’s Circumnavigation created by http://www.activehistory.co.uk. After you have installed Google Earth, you can download a .kmz file and import placemarks. You can find more examples of these virtual trips by visiting the Google Earth Community Page.
As a class activity, you could have students identify key places related to a unit of study then add them to the map each day, of course displaying them on your lcd projector. The application enables you to organize the placemarks in folders. If you have access to web server, you can save your save your folder as a .kmz file to share it with the world.
Related Links:
- Download Google Earth for Mac or PC
- Google Earth Community Page
- Sir Francis Drake’s Circumnavigation Page
November 7th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Here are a few more interactive maps you might consider showing on a lcd projector;
* National Geographic Map Machine
* Microsoft Local Live – Microsoft recently released a 3D update to their map web site that uses great aerial photography (requires Windows XP and IE6+)
* National Atlas
November 21st, 2006 at 2:40 pm
NASA has an open source mapping program that accesses their satellite imagery data for earth and other planets. http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
June 13th, 2007 at 9:23 am
There is a good use of Google Earth designed by a librarian for use with books a class might be reading to help students see the locations around the world where the story takes place.
http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0604_02.html