Google Geography: What Can I Do with Google Maps?
By now you are probably ready to explore some ways others have used Google Maps in their classrooms. Here is a short list of ideas. You can search Google for many more!
| Language Arts | |
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Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. |
Famous Places relating to a novel After reading a novel such as Anne Frank, create a map with the placemarks of all the concentration camps in Europe. |
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| My Reading Mapped includes maps for many famous explorers and includes books when available to accompany the maps. | |
| Science | |
Field Trip Report Record GPS waypoints and take pictures of various points of interest on a field trip. Come back and map these and include the pictures in placemarks. Great for geology, plant identifaction. |
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Map Earth Science Data Create and use maps of many earth science topics such as volcanoes, earthquakes, geological formations (e.g., fault activity, world crisis spots.,etc.). |
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Create a Local Environmental Resource Create a map of a local environmental area that people could use with a mobile device. |
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Astronomy Find locations of stars in the sky using Google Sky. Use Google Earth as a sky map. Explore the surface of the moon and Mars with Google Moon and Mars. |
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| Social Studies | |
Map Battles and Wars Map major battles of any war complete with placemarks and historical photos. Here are some great examples. |
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Explorers Follow the journeys of famous explorers and create placemarks for famous events. This site, My Reading Mapped, is a veritable treasure trove of maps and much more!!! |
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Campaigns Create maps that highlight the various campaigns of governments and famous leaders (i.e., Alexander the Great or Napolean). |
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Latitude and Longitude Give students practice with this really difficult concept! Give them a latitude, have them predict what cities they would find there, and then have them use Google Maps to find out! |
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Tours For younger students, create a tour of their neighborhood or school yard. For older students, createa a tour of their town or state (especially good for Washington State History). Map out a walking tour of a famous city. Students would have to research the city, identify significant historical sites and then create the placemarks for each. Or, have students plan a family trip and make a Google map for it (their own Dream Trip!). |
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| Art | |
Museums Create a map of art museums of the world with links to each one in the placemarks. Use the Streetview in Google Maps to go inside many of these. |
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Artists of the World Create a map showing where artists of the world lived and worked. Make sure to include at least one example of the artists work in the placemark. |
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| Math | |
Distance Find the shortest distance from point to point. |
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Area Use Google Planimeter to measure area of any region. |
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| PE | |
Exercise Route Map a walking, running or biking route using Gmap Pedometer site. Calculate calories burned. You can get a nice elevation map on this site as well! |
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