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Classroom Resources

Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students. It can be used with all grade levels, and the possibilities are endless with your imagination! Students can use Google Earth to explore topics like the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities, the impact of civilization on the natural environment, and the impact of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Teachers can use Google Earth demos to get their students excited about geography beyond the static map, or use different Google Earth layers to study transportation, demographics, economics, and in specific local or exotic contexts.

Below is a list of several other ways students and teachers can use Google Earth.

Students can use Google Earth to:

• Explore the animal kingdom and endangered species with the National Geographic layer and other content. ^Easy
• Create annotated place markers indicating location of school and points of interest in their town such as the local fire and police stations, the city library, local parks, and museums. ^Easy
• Study climate change and the effects of global warming.^Average
• Create tours of their school or community. ^Average
• Track earthquakes in real-time^Advanced

Teachers can use Google Earth to:

• Set the scene for geography, history, literature, astronomy and other lessons.^Easy
• Involve students in pro-active engagement in a wide-range of Google Outreach projects.^Easy
• Adapt traditionally abstract lessons to the “real-world” by having students interact with virtual “real-time” data such as weather, earthquakes, elephants migrations, etc.^Average

Explore the pages below to get started using Google Earth in your classroom:

Features for My Class
Learn how different Google Earth features can be used in an educational setting

Projects for My Subject
Discover ways Google Earth can be used for your specific subject, including lesson plans!

Lesson Plan Library
Check out lesson plans created by teachers for teachers, and submit your own.

Throughout the sections above lesson plans are labeled according to their difficulty level. Learn more about this site's leveling rubric for Google Earth lesson plans.