The purpose of this project is to create a media-infused experience that gives your students the opportunity to develop their respectful and ethical minds. For this project you will select a topic or concept that you teach and develop a virtual field trip in Google Earth through which students will learn about various cultures, be exposed to different perspectives on a topic or engage in critical examination of a global challenge. Your project will integrate digital media assets from Discovery Education streaming including an assessment component.
Requirements and deliverables
- Virtual Field Trip that includes all of the following:
- Home Placemark
- This placemark, which begins at your school or hometown, will include directions (text or audio) about the purpose of your virtual field trip
- At least four additional placemarks that include:
- Information about the topic or concept (combination of text and audio and/or links to websites)
- One or more images related to the topic or concept
- Intentional use of the Google Earth platform
- At least one activity during your virtual field trip should take advantage of the affordances of Google Earth. For example, have the students use the ruler tool to measure distances or direct them to view additional layers for more information.
- Assessment component developed using the Discovery Education streaming Builders
- Assignment Builder, Quiz Builder or Writing Prompt Builder
- Home Placemark
- Reflection Blog (300-500 words)
- Talk about the instructional goals of your virtual field trip and comment on how your project provides students the opportunity to develop their respectful and ethical minds.
- Also, upload and link your Google Earth project (kmz file) within your reflection blog post.
Hmm...this was definitely a challenge! My Google Earth project, Sports Around The World, was fun to research, and fun to compose, until I realized that all of the information I was putting into the "get info" field was not showing up in the balloons, but was still accessible in the "get info" field. Off to Google support I went...found a semi-answer, and still don't understand what to do. So, I have all of my information in the project, I've created the virtual field trip, but...have not come up with a fix for this problem! Thus, this is a work in progress.
I also had trouble inserting an image. I tried to put the Mexican Flag into the Placemark balloon, and that didn't work. I tried to insert it as an image, but then it showed the image over the entire map. So, again, a work in progress.
One of the great tools in Google Earth is the layers. I decided to add an extra activity for the students. As they travel around the world, I want them to record where it is warmest, where it is coldest, and what the average temperature of all of the places they visit is. To do this, they need to use the Weather layer. This also will help with their measurement skills-something that our recent assessment data shows the 5th through 7th grade students are weak in.
I also made a decision regarding the assessment tools available in Discovery Education. I decided to go with a straight quiz format. The students have already watched the videos and react the articles, so it doesn't make much sense to have them watch them all over again, especially when they can refer back to them in the Google Earth project if they want. So, I decided to have a quiz that was composed of mostly multiple choice and true/false questions. I also would plan to have a class discussion regarding the project, not only to have an additional assessment of what the students have learned, but also feedback on the project: How can I make it better? What technical problems did you encounter? etc.
I liked getting my "hands dirty" with Google Earth. I have used it before, but have not created a project. I think this a tool that I can use in all grades, and in all ways-not just with a project, but with a research question, or just letting the students explore geography.
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