STEM Resource: Using Google Earth

One of the most challenging projects I have managed is a series of books on using Google Earth to teach math, science, social studies, and language arts. Using Google Earth: Bring the World into Your Classroom, by NASA scientist JoBea Holt, earned a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of American Publishers, and I’m very proud of what we accomplished.

Our team put a great deal of effort and time into creating lessons and instructions that enable classroom teachers to use the highly complex and powerful Google Earth program to engage students’ curiosity and leverage technology to teach content. My greatest challenge was editing complex directions into clear, easy-to-follow procedures illustrated with multiple screenshots so that no matter teachers’ familiarity with the program they could use Google Earth with their students.
Lessons include:

• Using text clues in Make Way for Ducklings to map the route of the duck family through Boston (Grades 1-2)
• Measuring ocean depths and tracking the migration of sea animals (Grades 3-5)
• Tracking the path of Peary’s journey from Ellesmeer Island to the North Pole and using the sun slider tool to observe the light conditions during the trek (Grades 6-8).

Click each book cover to see a preview.