GOOGLE EARTH IN THE K- 8 CLASSROOM

Google Earth is a 3-D software, free to download on any computer, which aims to give its users a new outlook on the world including both a bird’s view and street view of selected locations. It is useful in a classroom setting in terms of showing locations both various features such as cities or volcanoes, and also current events and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. Google Earth is widely used around the world, and is gaining use in a K-12 classroom setting. However, prior to Google Earth being introduced to students in a classroom it has to be introduced to the K-12 teachers. In this study 23 future K-8 educators were introduced to Google Earth and provided instruction in various features needed to develop simple tours, such as the inclusion of place markers, pictures and text. The students designed tours related to natural disasters for use in a K-8 classroom. Topics ranged from earthquakes and wildfires, tsunamis and hurricanes, to tornadoes and severe weather. All 23 students who took part in this study indicated on pre- and post- surveys that the introduction increased their awareness of Google Earth and ability to use it. In terms of willingness to use it in their future classroom, 21 students stated yes, they would use Google Earth for a variety of subjects.