Blog 4: Google Earth Lesson Plan

Social Studies

Elementary School Geography Lesson Plan Using Google Earth
In this unit, grouped student will explore the geography of the United States. Students will create travel journals (or logs/blogs) supported with Google Earth location to discuss the five US places visited, including comparing and contrasting the physical characteristics of each region.

Learning Objectives: The student will be able to:

* Identify and discuss the major geographic regions of the United States;

* Identify key features and vocabulary for each major geographic region of the United States;

* Present and compare group findings to determine if the class has similar definitions for each
      region.

Lesson Plan:

1.      Have the students brainstorm ideas of places around the United States they’ve visited or   would like to visit.  

2.   Display a Map of North America in front of the class and ask the students to group the locations according to geographic region.

3.      The teacher will use Google Earth to introduce the five major geographic regions that students should be expected to identify as part of their project.

4.      Encourage students to brainstorm questions about the five regions.

5.      Split the children into five groups. Name each of the five groups one of the regions. Tell them to record all the information presented to the class on that particular region.

6.      Have the students choose five places they would like to travel to, one in each region.  Have them locate the region on Google Earth and tell about the characteristics of each region.

7.      Have students use the Measure Tool to measure the distances between their regions. 

8.      Have each group present their projects to the class.

9.      At the end of the unit, groups will create resource sheets about that region for the class for future reference.

I think that this lesson would could take a week to complete with fourth graders in order to allow them ample time to create their journal, identify regions and present.  This depends on how many computers and their availability to students. 
Students will learn about specific regions in the United States using Google Earth. By allowing children to use Google Earth instead of a book will allow them to explore the regions in a realistic and hands on approach.  As when using all technology children should be supervised and precautions should be taken to keep children on task and away from inappropriate sites they may find on the Internet.

This lesson was adapted and simplified from Discovery Education Unitedstreaming
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/services.google.com/en/us/educators/learning_materials/Earth_Lesson_ElementarySchool.pdf