KS3 Resources
Curriculum Opportunities - Using Google Earth
Google Earth is a cheap, easy and exciting way to introduce your students to GIS in the classroom. The program offers the opportunity to develop and use a range of skills of different levels of sophistication, while at the same time allowing your students to explore new places and environments at an increasingly detailed resolution.
In this section, Google Earth activities and resources are provided to accompany four of the existing KS3 Resource modules: Africa: A Continent of Contrasts, The Geography of My Stuff, Changing Climates and Risky World. These range in difficulty from easy (Africa) to advanced (Risky World).
For each of the four modules, an overview is provided which outlines the opportunities for integrating Google Earth into the lessons. In addition, a fully resourced activity is provided for one of the lessons, which includes worksheets and placemarks to download.
To help you and your students to develop their Google Earth skills, a range of skills sheets is also provided for you to download. The skills that you and your students will need to use for each module are referred to in the overview and activity guidelines. The sheets are based on the use of Google Earth version 4.3.
Skills sheets available to download:
Download all ten skills sheets in one document
In this section, Google Earth activities and resources are provided to accompany four of the existing KS3 Resource modules: Africa: A Continent of Contrasts, The Geography of My Stuff, Changing Climates and Risky World. These range in difficulty from easy (Africa) to advanced (Risky World).
For each of the four modules, an overview is provided which outlines the opportunities for integrating Google Earth into the lessons. In addition, a fully resourced activity is provided for one of the lessons, which includes worksheets and placemarks to download.
To help you and your students to develop their Google Earth skills, a range of skills sheets is also provided for you to download. The skills that you and your students will need to use for each module are referred to in the overview and activity guidelines. The sheets are based on the use of Google Earth version 4.3.
Skills sheets available to download:
| 1 | Finding places | Use the search engine to fly to a place. | Beginner | Download |
| 2 | Using the 3-D viewer | Navigate your way around using the rotate, look, move and zoom controls. | Beginner | Download |
| 3 | Using layers | View the additional information contained in layers created by Google. | Beginner | Download |
| 4 | Opening saved placemarks | Open Google Earth placemarks that you have saved from another source. | Beginner | Download |
| 5 | Creating a placemark | Create and edit your own placemarks, and add labels and descriptions. | Intermediate | Download |
| 6 | Organising, saving and touring placemarks | Save your placemarks in a folder and tour them. | Intermediate | Download |
| 7 | Creating a path | Draw, label, format and describe a route between two or a series of points. | Intermediate | Download |
| 8 | Measuring distance | Find out the distance between two points or the length of a path in a range of units. | Intermediate | Download |
| 9 | Advanced Placemarks | Format placemark text and add images, video and weblinks. | Advanced | Download |
| 10 | Creating a polygon | Draw a polygon to highlight a particular area and create a 3-D shape to represent different values. | Advanced | Download |
Download all ten skills sheets in one document
Google Earth Online Demonstration
Watch a demonstration of how to use Google Earth to create a presentation.
How to....