Google Product: Google Earth

Google Earth is a virtual 3D representation of our planet Earth from as far out as space to as close as street level view. In addition, our moon and the planet Mars can be experienced from pictures and movies provided by NASA. The ability to view anything on the globe in 3D has many applications in the classroom for both history and sciences. On top of the incredible amount of features this google product provides, it is entirely free to download and use

In history class, Google Earth can be used to display historical sites in 3D or give a life tour of a famous person. Displaying 3D models of famous architecture provides relating to the lesson not only an engaging visual of the topic compared to plain 2D pictures, but also can help enhance the students understanding for the time period by the design and surrounding area of the structure. In addition, Google Earth provides pre-made videos of tours of the life of each of the US presidents. This is a great way for students to learn information about their founding fathers while getting a visual representation of where they lived.

              

Google Earth also provides a large variety of information for an array of different sciences. In environmental science, there are climate temperature settings of the globe, as well as many 3D views of the environment in different biomes. There is a also a Google Oceans section of this program that is useful for representing aquatic life in marine biology. Leaving our planet, astronomy classes can use the 3D models put together with the collaboration of NASA of our moon and mars, as well as many pictures taken from the Hubble Space Telescope of other solar systems and galaxies.

Google Earth presents an incredible amount of information displaying 3D representations of places on Earth and outer space. The application may look overwhelming at first, but it is easy to get in to, with clearly labeled filter options on the bottom left to for example enable ocean or weather icons on the rotatable and zoomable globe. Additionally, anything can be searched in the top left search bar in order to quickly hone in on a certain place. Google Earth is both free and available to download on computers, usable on the web, or as an app on an Apple or Android device, making it easy to access in any circumstance. Google Earth has a vast amount of applications in the classroom, and can provide a great alternative for teachers to represent their history or science lesson in a 3D environment.

-Conrad Tulig

Works Cited:
https://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/
http://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/google-earth-in-the-classroom/