Google+Maps

=About Google Maps =

Google Maps is the convenient way to find your way...anywhere!
Need directions? Places to get the best pizza in town? Want to see your destination BEFORE you get there?

Although Google Earth is a very exciting tool, sometimes **it takes some "tooling around" with a more basic mapping tool** to learn about making placemarks, inserting information and images. As a Middle School Technology Coach, I worked with two teams of 6th graders in the fall on an **"Around the World" virtual tour.** The teachers had always worked on a latitude/logitude project using paper passports, images and facts about the 7-10 places they would love to visit in the world. When I introduced Google Maps/Earth to them, they were really excited to take this new journey with me.

The handouts on this page are those I used with our teachers and students. Since our **students are not yet 13**, they could not create their own Google account, so I created a class account for them. We even included a letter to parents explaining the project and how they could download Google Earth at home. We also created a **Code of Conduct** form for each student and parent guardian to sign.

Once they created their trip in Google Maps, they then got a chance to **View their trip in Google Earth.** There, they could explore their trip in 3D and play around with the tools and added features of Earth.Overall, this was a successful project in that the students were really **engaged**, **interested** and **motivated to learn more** about the places they chose (and they even discovered more about latitude and longitude then they set out to!)

Around the World Virtual Tour:
(6th Grade Social Studies Project)
 * Parent Letter [[file:Google_Earth_Parent Letter.pdf]]
 * Code of Conduct form [[file:Student Code of Conduct Agreement.doc]]
 * Directions/Job Aid [[file:Google Maps_Directions.pdf]]