10Tech Elementary Learn & Earn: "Enemy of the State" Anyone?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

"Enemy of the State" Anyone?

If you haven't checked out Google Street View yet, the time has come. You’d be surprised where you and your class can go. Reading a book set in Iowa? Might as well “drive” down Temple Ave. in Shell Rock so that students can get a glimpse of the vast terrain. Or maybe “drive” by the Guggenheim on 5th Ave. in New York City. Or if those options are too luxurious for you, you can also walk to Starbucks from Lake Wilderness. It’s easy—just visit Google Maps, plug in an address or just zoom in on an area you wish to “visit.” Look for the little yellow guy and drag him over to one of the street views that are available in that area (available streets will be highlighted in blue).

This week, tell us how you might use Google Street View in your classroom. Be creative! It’

s not just a mapping OR If there isn't a way you could use Street View, visit the Google for Educators page or the Google blog (side note: it's really amazing what Google offers beyond search) to to learn about some of the other great resources Google offers that might be useful to you and your students. Let us know what you find and how you might use it. Oh, standing in the middle of the Maple Valley Highway staring at the 76 station probably doesn't have too many classroom applicatoins. Oh, and as for the title, you should definitely check out the movie "Enemy of the State;" way ahead of its time.

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Melissa Morlock · 785 weeks ago

For the new fourth grade sustainabilty unit we have a project on the National Parks. We used Google Street View to "tour" the parks that the students were studying. This tool gave them more perspective of what the terrain and area around their national park looked like. The down side is that it was difficult for the students to tell if they were in the park or just on the streets outside or near their park. However, it was definitely a great way to get the students engaged and excited to learn about their national park.

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Rachel Cragar · 785 weeks ago

I havent tried it yet, so I am not sure if it will work out for me, but we do an estimation challenge where the students estimate how long it would take to walk to Seattle. It would be fun to plug that in and go on a virtual walk from Lake Wilderness to the Space Needle. We can also tour coupville before camp and walk down the road that the Bostom Massacre accured.

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Corrie Blechschmidt · 785 weeks ago

What a fun website! I could see using this tool when we are studying Colonial Boston and we would like to see what Boston looks like now, especially down by the wharf and the street where the Boston Massacre occured. Of course I also googled my street and saw pictures of our place before we bought it and realized that we have done a lot in a year. Very cool.

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Denise Strom · 785 weeks ago

How timely! My class just used Google Maps for our National Parks project! Students had to map their route from Glacier Park Elementary in Maple Valley, all the way to whichever National Park they were studying! It was so cool to see our school right on the web and we could move around and see it from different angles. We played around with it quite a bit and were able to put in students' addresses and go right to their houses! It is a really cool site and so, so, so useful for our classroom 10 lessons!

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Amy Cassady · 785 weeks ago

I tried looking in China to see if I could get streets for when we study Asia. There isn't a way to be able to see it as a photo which was kind of a bummer. I took the kids to the computer lab so that they could type in their addresses and go directly to their homes. They got a huge kick out of that! I can't wait to play more to see where else I can go.

2 replies · active 778 weeks ago

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Wendy Ward · 785 weeks ago

I am going to use this when teaching rules of the road during our safety unit. We can actually see what it looks like to walk on the left facing traffic and ride bikes, scooter, skateboards, etc on the right with traffic.

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Susan N. · 785 weeks ago

I searched for Australia. Looking at the satellite pictures of Australia really would show the students how most of the landscape is outback and plains and very little is forest. There are also links to photos that show what buildings, parks, etc. look like. This would help the students get a visual about what Australia really looks like to tie in with the information they are learning.

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Molly Klemkow · 785 weeks ago

I do not know how I would use this in my preschool classroom but I do feel that in our world of technology there are so many ways to connect with family or friends that have moved away. I have some family and friends that have moved to another city, state, or even country and I have yet had the opportunity to visit them but using these maps you could visit where they live and see their house and area they live in. Great website!

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mark lange · 785 weeks ago

Cool idea! I am a visual learner and I know some of my students are as well. Since I teach 5th grade and have the Colonial Boston “Storypath”, this would be a great tool. I spend time discussing with my students a portrait penned about the Boston Massacre. Showing them the Common House and what the street looked like would help prove Paul Revere’s portrait as propaganda.

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Tina McDaniel · 785 weeks ago

I thought this was really awesome! I also teach first grade and what a great way to make a connection to how our city (or Seattle) can compare to the buildings in Australia. The satelliteimages are are a great way for students to see the difference in the regions as we spend a LOT of time learning about the outback.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Kimberly · 785 weeks ago

I found my house and my garage door was open, full view inside. Thankfully we weren't havng one of our Bavarian potluck and chicken dance garage parties. Awkward. But, I digress. Google maps would be fun to use for our Colonial Boston unit, as Corrie and Mark mentioned above, but I can also see it being fun to use for Camp Casey (where are you "really" taking us?!), and it would be a great tool for comparing/contrasting the industrial North vs. agricultural South for the Growth of a Nation (Civil War) unit. I tried to find a few Lewis & Clark expedition locations, but for Sacajawea Park (Pasco, WA), I only got as far as the parking lot, and Fort Clatsop (Astoria, OR) had the same problem. My advice is to definitely do your homework before using this tool in class. For virtual tours, going straight to the web sites for each worked much better. I'm keeping my garage door closed from now on.

1 reply · active 785 weeks ago

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Kim Schmitz · 785 weeks ago

This is a very cool tool. I too will use it for Australia. I also enjoyed looking at Google for Educators and seeing that there is a safety mode on youtube. Just yesterday, there was a couple of links on youtube for the frilled lizard that we were studying. They were only 2 minute clips and I clicked on them to watch them, hoping threre were no surprises..... It worked out great! I would have loved to be able to use safety mode though just to be sure. Most of the time I preview things, but yesterday we had not planned to go there.

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Ruth Cerna · 785 weeks ago

Street view led me to Google for Educators which led me to investigate Google Earth and I love it! The galleries listed on the home page are cool -- things like Haiti Earthquake Imagery, Hourly snapshots of all active flights in the US, 3D castle tour, trip around Asia, etc. I probably spent an hour playing around -- flying around the world checking out places like Venice, Italy which looks so weird from above. I zoomed in as quickly as I could to a Nebraska wheat field just for fun. You can click on various buttons such as weather, 3D buildings and places of interest. I'll definitely use this in my classroom whenever we read about a specific location to give kids a better geographical perspective.

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jclemsen · 784 weeks ago

I used Google Earth when we were studying the regions of Washington State. We were able to view the different mountains and cruise along the Columbia River. It was exciting to see the irrigation rounds much like you do from the windows of an airplane. I, too, used in for the National Parks project and students were able to try to locate the entrance to their park. It was a bit clumsy for students to use. Like Melissa said, students weren't sure just where they were. somewhere I noticed that Google has outer space images. I'm hoping I can remember where I found it so when astromony time comes we can travel out of this world!!!!!!

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Tenaya Williams · 784 weeks ago

I explored three major cities in Australia and used the street view to take a stroll around the Sydney Opera House. I was also able to get a bird’s eye view of Ayers Rock and the surrounding terrain. What a great addition to the first grade Australia unit!

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DebbieO · 784 weeks ago

OK - kinda creepy, but really fun! I'm not sure I can use this to teach math and Language! but I had a blast looking up all the locations we used to live. It would be a real stretch to connect it to something in my curriculum.

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Diane M. · 784 weeks ago

This was so much fun. I looked at the house where I grew up. I think it could be used with the integrated units. For our first graders it would be with Australia. I would use it when we talk about daily life in Australia and compare it to their lives. It would be fun to look at communities, homes and schools in australia. We could use this with our community unit as well. We could compare Maple Valley to bigger cities and rural communites. I think the 1st graders would love to see thier house on street view. May be they could learn that address that way!

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Beth Belmondo · 784 weeks ago

The first thing I thought of was our communities unit. In kindergarten we learn about what a community is, and we make a large map of our community around Lake Wilderness. It would be fun to use Google's street view to look at some of the different neighborhoods and landmarks that we put on our map-it would be a great way to show the kids that our map represents real, tangible things. Something to look forward to next Fall!

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Evelyn · 784 weeks ago

This year I am a reading teacher, and I wish I would have known about this sooner. I have pulled in other resources on the internet to show what an animal, a landform etc. Students interests seem to expand when they can relate their reading in real life in some form. I definitely will try out these Google tools to explore our reading further. Normally I teach first grade, and the opportunities to show sites in Australia, our homes and neighborhoods in Maple Valley, etc. would make our integrated units come alive even more.

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Teresa Eccles · 784 weeks ago

I tried using Google Earth to view some things in South America. I didn't get as close as I would have liked to the Rainforest but it was fun for the kids last week to see us zoom in on our area and then head to South America. I will need to explore a little more to see if we can view any South American cities to compare our community with. I was a little worried about seeing my own home on the web like that. The kids however were very interested in seeing Maple Valley. They wanted to have someone from our class walk outside so they could be on camera....We had a good talk about photos vs. live video.

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Samantha · 784 weeks ago

I went for a tour through the city of Sydney it was interesting but I didn't show my kids yet. Still need to find the address or site that they would enjoy. I heard that google maps go under water in the ocean but I can't figure out how to do that. Does someone know if I can cruise the Great B. Reef? I can swim with the whales on google earth but I can't figure out how to go under water. Thank you if you can help!

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Suz Chen · 784 weeks ago

I love using Google Earth to map places where I've been - it's neat to see the world spin after you've put a pin down in Europe and then head home. I'm not exactly sure how I would use this since I am not teaching, but I do think it's a wonderful tool for classrooms and for individuals. One of my favorite sites is www.walkscore.com - this gives a score based off of your location and how many parks, restaurants, etc. are within walking distance. What I like about this is you can teach kids that it is possible to decrease car use and increase exercise!

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Renae Hanson · 784 weeks ago

Here I am...posting way too late. So sorry! At any rate. Love google maps. I've spent time with them before, but never really tried using it with students. I found my house and am still amazed that the street view is up to date and accessible in seconds. Since I haven't been teaching integrated units for a few years, I decided to spend a little time on "Google For Educators". I'm sure that I barely scratched the surface, but the google sketch looked engaging and interesting. I'll definitely try to devote more time exploring that...

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Cheryl Reilly · 784 weeks ago

I do not teach in a classroom, but I have used google maps with both of my children in their homework endeavors. When Jaden was doing his 1st grade water project, he wanted to show pictures of the different water features he has been to. We took a virtual tour of the different fountains around Seattle that he has been to in order to refresh his memory, then we printed pics off google images.
With Hunter, she was reading a horse book and found a famous horse statue in Italy. So we zoomed to the square and saw the statue and all the buildings around it. I guess these examples are similar to virtual field trips.

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Mona Best · 784 weeks ago

I'm having a hard time thinking about how this could be used for speech-language services. We could google different sites to practice describing what we see. We could work on verb tenses like 'drive' and we could generate sentences about 'where the car is driving' or 'where it drove'. hhhmmm..we'll see :)

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