To all those attending the talk,

Many thanks for attending and for giving your fantastic suggestions. These are

included on the last slides.

Look out for another GoogleEarth lecture next year!

Enjoy playing….

James

How to use Google Earth in your geography teaching

James RileyLawrence Sheriff School, Rugby

james.riley@lawrencesheriffschool.com

Google Earth: Practical Ideas

Please use the sticky notes provided to write down one (innovative) way that you have used

Google Earth in your geography teaching. These will be shared after the course.

Presentation Outline

1. Introduction

2. Google Earth as a teaching tool

3. Google Earth as a resource for pupils

4. Google Earth promoting geography in schools

5. Concluding remarks

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Introduction

• a

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Please use the sticky notes provided to write down one (innovative) way that you have used Google

Earth in your geography teaching. These will be shared after the course.

• These will be culminated and shared on the online GA materials after the conference

1

Google Earth as GIS

• OCR– “identify, select, collect and record a variety of

quantitative and qualitative evidence through field work and from other primary and secondary sources, including…geographical information systems” www.ocr.org.uk

• Edexcel– “use modern information technologies, including

geographical information systems (GIS), as appropriate to the content” www.edexcel.com

• AQA– “ICT skills to include…use of geographical information

systems” www.aqa.org.uk

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1

Why buy expensive GIS packages when Google Earth can fulfil the requirements for contemporary geography curricula for free?

2.1 Locations

2.2 Use of layers

2.3 Downloading kmz/kml files

2.4 Tours

2.5 Map overlays

2.6 Historical imagery

2.7 Exploring Climate Change

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2

Google Earth as a teaching tool

Simple ‘where are we now’ and then ‘where are we going’…

Use of interactive whiteboard – dragging

Use of 3D mouse

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2.1

2.1 Locations

3Dconnexion Space Navigator, RRP £45

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2.1

2.1 Locations

• Panoramios (talk about later)• Wikipedia pages• Roads• 3D buildings• Street View (talk about later)• Traffic• Weather

• and many more…and constantly growing…

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2.2

2.2 Use of Layers

2.2

• KML = Keyhole Markup Language

• KML vs KMZ– kmz is a zipped kml– kmz larger, can include images etc

• Finding kmz/kmls…

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2.3

2.3 Downloading kmz/kml files

• Infant Mortality– Found googling “infant mortality .kmz”

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2.3

2.3 Downloading kmz/kml files

• What is a Google Earth tour?

• How do I make one?

• How do I alter tour variables?

• How do I save tours?

• What (dis)advantages?

• Bristol Tour

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2.4

2.4 Tours

• Get map (scan on, online, screendump etc) and save it

• Find location

• Overlay image

• Make image semi-transparent

• Align image properly

• Make image opaque again

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2.5

2.5 Map overlays

• Particularly effective in 3D – grips surface of land

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2.5

2.5 Map overlays

• Particularly effective in 3D – grips surface of land

• Can do world maps that grips to world

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2.5

2.5 Map overlays

• Use of older aerial shots to compare against current land use

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2.6

2.6 Historical imagery

• Use of older aerial shots to compare against current land use

• Ideas for use– Beijing Olympic Park and Birds Nest Stadium

vs pre-Olympic development

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2.6

2.6 Historical imagery

Beijing Olympic Park 2001

Beijing Olympic Park 2009

• Use of older aerial shots to compare against current land use

• Ideas for use– Beijing Olympic Park and Birds Nest Stadium

vs pre-Olympic development– Coastal erosion (Happisburgh)– Emergence of Dubai coastline– Melting ice caps

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2.6

2.6 Historical imagery

• Recently produced section on Climate Change in Google Earth with Al Gore

http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/

• IPCC Scenarios KMZ file

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2.7

2.7 Exploring Climate Change

3.1 Street View

3.2 Screenshots and hyperlinked PowerPoints

3.3 Representations of place

3.4 Virtual fieldwork

3.5 Google SketchUp

3.6 GE-Graph

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3

Google Earth as a resource for pupils

• What is it?

• How do I use it?

• Ideas for geography lessons

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y 3.1 Street View

3.1

3.1

3.1

• Exploring parts of the world– Yosemite National Park: looking at glacial features

• Environmental Quality Surveys– Is there car parking nearby?– Is there wheelchair access?– Preview tourist facilities: how close is it to public

transport? Is that beach accessible? Are there noisy bars nearby?

• Land Use Transects (virtual geography)• Revisiting fieldtrip locations

– London Docklands

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y 3.1 Street View

3.1

• Also available through Google Maps

• www.google.com/maps

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y 3.1 Street View

3.1

3.1

• What is it?

• How do I use it?

• Ideas for geography lessons

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y 3.2 Screenshots and hyperlinked PowerPoints

3.2

• What is it?

• How do I use it?

• Ideas for geography lessons

• Use of Google Earth Panoramios– e.g. “study the panoramios and investigate

what it is like to live on a char in Bangladesh. Select the five images that best show what life is like and explain why you chose them.”

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y 3.3 Representation of place

3.3

3.3

• Measuring distances with the Line and Path tool– Examples

• Investigating longshore drift on a beach• Measuring the size of glacial features• Measuring the width of a river as it flows downstream

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y 3.4 Virtual Fieldwork

3.4

3.4

• Measuring distances with the Line and Path tool– Examples

• Investigating longshore drift on a beach• Measuring the size of glacial features• Measuring the width of a river as it flows downstream

• Measuring areas– Examples

• Measuring the approximate size of parts of a city – CBD, favelas

• Street View

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y 3.4 Virtual Fieldwork

3.4

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y 3.5 Google SketchUp

3.5http://sketchup.google.com/

• Allows you to plot graphs onto GoogleEarth

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y 3.6 GE-Graph

3.6

3.6

3.6

3.6

3.6

3.6

3.6

• Get a GE-edited school map onto the school website

• Get pupils to send in kmls of their holidays and loop these on projectors on parents evenings

• Create kmls for school trips (foreign exchanges, World Challenge, deparment trips etc)

• Look at GE-Graph links with Maths and SketchUp links with IT/Art/Tech

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y 4 GE promoting Geography

4

5.1 Lesson ideas

5.2 Helpful Hints

5.3 Where to find out more about GE

5.4 Concluding remarks

5.5 Questions

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y 5 Concluding remarks

5

5.1.1 Virtual Autobiography

• Pupils create a virtual autobiography– Attach placemarks to important locations– Edit the placemarks to include text or images

• This could be done for their summer holidays

• Or the geography fieldtrip they’ve just been on

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y 5.1 Lesson Ideas

5.1

5.1.2 Researching on location

• Let pupils use all GE layers to discover information about an area before studying it

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y 5.1 Lesson Ideas

5.1

5.1.3 Journey down a river

• Follow a river from its mouth to the source

• Describe how the river changes

• What land uses are found?

• Use the ruler to measure widths

• What altitudes?

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y 5.1 Lesson Ideas

5.1

• Have a copy of the Google Earth instructions user guide– Downloadable from:

http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/google_earth_user_guide.pdf

• Have ‘Tip Sheets’ printed off and laminated to keep with you during your initial Google Earth lessons.– Excellent Tip Sheet:

http://serc.carleton.edu/files/sp/library/google_earth/examples/google-earth-tip-sheet.v2.pdf

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y 5.2 Helpful Hints

5.2

• Slow down…– Stop and ask questions.– Good opportunity to prove that disparate

geography topics are in fact interlinked and related

• Be organised– Make folders to store all your files in

• Ensures you don’t get overwhelmed

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y 5.2 Helpful Hints

5.2

• Sharing data– Remember kmls are just like any other file– Save it, send it, share it

• Regular updates– Google Earth constantly evolving

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y 5.2 Helpful Hints

5.2

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y 5.2 Helpful Hints

5.2

• Sign up to Google Earth Sightseer Newsletter• http://earth.google.com/sightseer_signup.html

• Google Earth on Twitter– http://www.twitter.com/googleearth

• Google Lat Long Blog– http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/

• Google Earth Unofficial Blog– http://www.gearthblog.com/

• Google Earth Community– http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0

• Google Earth Gallery– http://www.google.com/gadgets/directory?

synd=earth&cat=featured&preview=on

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y 5.3 Where to find out more

5.3

• Juicy Geography’s Google Earth Section– http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googleearth.htm

• Classroom Google Earth wiki– http://classroomgoogleearth.wikispaces.com/

• Drive a Monster Milk Truck around GE– http://earth-api-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demos/

milktruck/index.html• Gigapan 3D Panoramic images

– http://www.gigapan.org/• Take trips through novels

– http://www.googlelittrips.org/• Pupils to narrate a trip

– http://tbarrett.edublogs.org/2008/11/23/google-earth-is-our-paper-part-1-find-a-location-begin-a-journey/

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y 5.3 Where to find out more

5.3

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y 5.3 Where to find out more

5.3

“The only limit to Google Earth’s classroom use

is your imagination”Riley, 2010

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y 5.4 Concluding remarks

5.4

Thank you and have fun playing!

James RileyLawrence Sheriff School, Rugbyjames.riley@lawrencesheriffschool.com

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y 5.5 Questions…

5.5

Please use the sticky notes provided to write down one new innovative way that you think you could now use GoogleEarth. These will

be shared after the course.

Your excellent ideas…• Narmada Dam aid project• Glacial landforms in Snowdonia (contours)• Volcanic eruption in Iceland on fieldtrip• Enable councillors and residents to make decisions in their communities• SketchUp – good for looking at making buildings that fit into an environment• Images of GE in conjunction with maps of same area – IWB/PPT• Measuring things to show scale and relative size of places• Sliding time bar and coastal erosion• Children plan the perfect holiday for a specific person/set of needs – landscape, climate,

features, location of airport etc• USGS earthquakes download layer for stimulating debate about living in hazardous areas• Mapped British seaside resorts and looking at how these have changed over time• Maps and streetview to explore urban zones within Birmingham• Sand dune profiling and then put on GE• Air traffic control at NY JFK airport• Seeing contours as well as real life features• Fieldwork – Barcelona – GPS – to record graffiti then plot onto GIS – ditto Land Uses in Sitges• Land use changes along a transect• Changing face of Denby – use of historical maps• Using the water level gauge add-on for looking at islands vanishing as sea levels rise• Lighthouse activity – put a circle centred on the location of a lighthouse. Make it the radius of

the lighthouse beam. Look at area – why does it need a lighthouse? (this is in Teacher Resource Exchange online)