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If your geography students haven’t learned the locations of all the states by now, maybe they need a little game-based incentive. Know Your States is a geography game where students have to plop all 50 states into their correct positions on the map. Sure, they can handle gimmies like Alaska and Hawaii, but can they find Rhode Island when they don’t have the rest of the eastern seaboard as a reference?

Know Your States isn’t the most robust game, but it’s a fun diversion, and will hopefully give your students a better idea of where Wyoming is, just in case their parents take them to Yellowstone on summer vacation. -BILL FERRIS

Know Your States

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There are few places on Earth that seem to me more remote than Greenland.  Not to mention cold.  And dark.  During the winter, the sun really does not even rise.  Sounds like a place for your next vacation, right?  Thanks to NASA Cryospheric scientist Lora Koenig, you can experience winter in Greenland without making the actual trip and braving the minus-50 degree Celsius temperatures.  She spent this past winter in Greenland blogging about her experience.

As you read her weekly entries, you can come to understand some of the important work she is doing in Greenland.  She collected time measurements of snow surface temperature, microwave brightness temperature, and snow surface height.  These measurements all help with ongoing projects that NASA has involving several satellites.  In her entries, Lora tells you about her work and what life is really like in the winter in Greenland.  Even better, there are lots of pictures and a summit webcam and weather station!

In a classroom, this site could be utilized in different ways.  As part of a geography class, it could be used to highlight the different geographical features that exist in Greenland.  Your class could take a virtual field trip while immersed in the personal stories of the author.  In science, this website could be used to highlight important aspects of the  process of scientific inquiry.  This blog provides a great view into what it’s like to actually work as a scientist.  Using the weather station data, a math class could create graphs that track daily temperatures, and could even use other resources to add some local data comparisons to their graphs.  This blog opens up a new part of the world to your students.

As long as you can get past the chilliness that will seep into your bones as you peruse the site (I think I need to go put on a sweater), you’ll find at least a few ways that this resource could be useful to you and your students.  -REBECCAH HAINES

Winter Camp: A Blog from the Greenland Summit

Summit Camp Webcam and Weather Station

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Meet Me at the Corner: Virtual field trips for kids, by kids

We here at Instructify love to hear from you. Would you like to leave some feedback on this posting or just send me a message? Simple: just go up on your roof and paint your remarks in big, block letters. If you’re in a rural area, you might arrange some rocks in a field. Then in the comments section under each posting simply send us the coordinates.

Yeah, I suppose maybe you could leave the actual comments in the comments section, Captain Buzzkill. I’m just trying to get you motivated about different ways that you might possibly use Google Earth.

Maybe you might be interested in using Google Earth to explore the Civil War, look at the global diamond trade, or engage students in math and geometry by looking at different mountains’ ski slopes. Take a look at these lesson plans for Google Earth, for example. You’ll find lessons spread out across five content areas: social studies, math, science, language arts, and cross curricular. The lessons start at basic how-tos for users (which aren’t just for stinking newbies — experienced users might even find new features to investigate), then branch out into both student-controlled and teacher-controlled lessons.

The best part is that these lesson plans are already prepared for you. The file formats will vary, but now you don’t have to stay up until 1 a.m. doing prep work and planning. Who knows? This new abundance of time might afford you the chance to start a new hobby…like arranging cryptic messages for satellites to read. I’m just saying. -NICK YINGLING

Lesson Plans for Google Earth

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Many, many changes have taken place in the world since we last visited Google Earth. I don’t mean changes in the outside world. No, that’s a terrible place! I mean the world you can explore inside of the latest update for Google Earth.

Google Earth 5 has a bunch of new content for you to use in the classroom. In fact, there are too many new features for me to break down in a short amount of time. So here is a quick spotlight on them.

1. First, as always, set aside five minutes for your students to locate their own house. It is inevitable.
2. See how places have changed thanks to more historical image content. Not only is it cool to watch buildings grow and towns expand, but this is also useful for lessons on the environment. Check out urban sprawl, tropical deforestation in the rain forests and the melting of ice caps.
3. The Earthquake layer is very cool. Every site is linked to info about the magnitude, depth and date of the earthquake. Zoom way out and it pretty much paints a picture of where the tectonic plates are all fussing and feuding.
4. The Touring feature allows users to create and share narrated tours as they move around in Google Earth. I’m not quite sold on this one, personally. Then again, people have described me as being a spleen. But let’s be honest—even the best tour is still a tour. Google Earth is most fun when you go off the beaten path and explore.
5. Google Mars 3D allows you to check out high-res images and terrain of the angry red planet. I’ve just spent 20 minutes bumping around Cydonia looking for the Face on Mars. The first person to provide me some coordinates wins a chance to hear me discuss the 2000 sci-fi movie Mission to Mars.
6. One of the biggest and most publicized additions to Google Earth is all of the ocean-related content. With numerous content layers from scientists and researchers, you can now explore the other 70 percent of our planet. Check out the Mariana Trench and a bunch of shipwrecks.

The classroom uses for Google Earth are plentiful, so I don’t think you’ll run into problems working it into a lesson or two. -NICK YINGLING

UPDATE — They found the lost city of Atlantis! But then the Illuminati were quick to discredit that. Hm, weird… My coffee tastes like almonds now. That’s strange…adgrgfd….

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As budgets for field trips (and supplies and paper!?!) get brutally slashed in schools around the country, teachers are looking for alternatives. Okay, no, there never was any money for a field trip to Jordan, but Project Explorer gives the kind of information and experiences that replace — and even exceed in some ways — what you and your students might have found at that history museum that you suddenly can’t afford to go to.

Project Explorer, which was previously reviewed on Instructify, provides free, virtual field trips to global destinations for students at the upper-elementary-, middle- and high-school levels. They have recently added Jordan as a destination, which is filled with Project Explorer’s robust written, photographic, and video content about the nation’s history and customs. As with other destinations on Project Explorer, students are taken through Jordan by “tour guides.” Unfortunately, the tour guides are not a racially diverse bunch, which has two negative effects. First, it contributes to an overall sense of the outsider looking in on a culture that has little chance to represent itself with an insider’s voice. Second, it may be more difficult for students of color (now representing 44% of public school students in the U.S.) to identify with the guides and conceive of the notion that they too can become global explorers.

That said, Project Explorer provides a great way for students to explore Jordan, from key historical sites to cuisine to Middle Eastern music to more nuanced socio-political issues such as the experience of Palestinian refugees or Western stereotypes about Middle Eastern dress and terrorism. The video content is by far the most engaging part and there is plenty of it for your students to get access to the sights and sounds of Jordan. Accompanying lesson plans provide basic ideas that you can use as seeds for more robust lessons that link to key content for your students.

The new content about Jordan is a welcome addition to Project Explorer and we can look forward to planned trips to Singapore, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Greece and Italy, as well as content catering to the early-elementary level. More than an encyclopedia or a typical museum, Project Explorer gives kids the chance to explore the world…no buses or plane tickets required! -ABBY MARTIN

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As if Antarctica wasn’t inhospitable enough, it’s also got a freaking volcano.  Mount Erebus, the world’s southernmost active volcano, showed signs of life in February, and NASA’s Earth Observatory got a nice overhead shot of it, along with some thermal imaging that shows off the volcano’s lava lake.

This photo might add some color to a lesson on geography or plate tectonics. If nothing else, the picture proves that, whether you freeze to death or get engulfed by molten lava, Antarctia is a great place to experience deadly scientific phenomena. -BILL FERRIS

Volcanic Activity on Mt. Erebus via NASA Earth Observatory

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NASA’s Earth Observatory has picked up some some great images of the bushfires in Australia. Seeing these from outer space gives an idea of the scale of these fires.

While you’re there, be sure to look at some of their other photos, such as the Antarctic warming trends, or shots of the crowds during the presidential inaugurtion. -BILL FERRIS

Bushfires in Southeast Australia via NASA Earth Observatory

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At one point in time, I knew all 50 U.S. states and their capitals. I am confident I could still name a majority of them, too. What’s more is that at one point I also knew all the countries and their capitals. I could name even fewer of these now. Nonetheless, it was all the result of memorization techniques in order to regurgitate the information for a test (sorry, Mrs. Little) and now I couldn’t identify Chad from Libya on a map if you paid me. (I know, I am a total dummy, but let’s not focus on me here.)

So along comes Maps of World and its games to show me exactly what kind of dummy I am. This is a great resource for geography students and teachers to take advantage of in order to improve your identification of the world’s many countries and cities. The site boasts having high quality maps of just about anywhere, but it was, of course, the games that caught my attention. Especially the one that asks you to Know Your World. How hard could it be, right?

Mind numbingly difficult, that’s how hard. This game gives you 10 seconds to remember as many different countries and cities on a map as you can, then it takes away the text and leaves you with a bank map. The game prompts you with the various locations, which you must then locate using a cursor and your quick memorization wits. If you are a dummy like me, you’ll get to about round four before your brain explodes. Either way, the game is a fun way to improve your geography skills or for your students to study for an upcoming test. There are other games on the site, though, so feel free to peruse until you find something your speed. Too bad “Click on the Map” isn’t a game.  -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Know Your World on Maps of World

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Two things I don’t particularly enjoy: geography and quizzes. I have a horrible sense of direction, and who really enjoys quizzes, anyway? Yet somehow I love the San Francisco Chronicle’s Annual Geography Quiz. It’s eerily similar to last year’s quiz in that the questions are fun, and in the words of quiz-creator John Flinn, it is, “a way for me to highlight some fun facts I stumbled upon in 2008, usually while in the process of looking up something else.”

This quiz might be a fun activity for your students. If nothing else, they’ll learn a lot of cool trivia about the world. You never know when you might need to know whether Mount Everest is taller than the Mariana Trench is deep, or what nation Zanzibar belongs to. -BILL FERRIS

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Taking a group of students on a field trip to Rome may be financially unrealistic, and taking them to Ancient Rome is physically impossible. Fortunately, an international team of researchers worked more than 10 years to provide the next best thing: a three-dimensional model of Rome in the year 320 AD.

Enter Ancient Rome 3D and witness the best view of Ancient Rome in over 15 centuries. Brought to you by Google Earth, this digital glimpse into the past is simply awesome. For those of you who have never used Google Earth, the two-minute instructional video on the intro page is helpful. You will need to download the program itself, which will run the simulation. A word of caution: slower computers (like mine) may have a hard time running Ancient Rome 3D without freezing up. I suggest closing all other programs and exercising a little patience. You should also note that the directional control at the top of the screen adjusts your horizontal perspective. In other words, the control allows you to see buildings as if you were walking towards them, as opposed to the default overhead angle.

Once you’ve become familiar with the program, the next step is to introduce Ancient Rome 3D into the classroom. Google is sponsoring a Rome Curriculum Competition, “accepting curricula from all grade levels and K-12 subject areas including art history, math, social studies, physics, and philosophy.” Contest winners will feel like they’ve achieved gladiatorial victory, without the risk of getting torn apart by wild animals. –JIMI RADABAUGH

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I don’t envy you geography teachers. Ever since Pangaea split apart over 100 million years ago you’ve been stuck dealing with the same seven shapes. Sure, every once in a while a landmass changes names because of a change in ownership, but you have to admit that an awful lot of maps look the same.

Not so with SHOW/WORLD, which bills itself as “a new way to look at the world.” The premise is simple; you select a topic, such as population or CO2 emissions, and the traditional map transforms into a new map based on the data for that topic. For example, China appears larger on the population map, as it represents 19 percent of the world’s total population. The United States looks enormous on the armed forces spending map, as it accounts for 45 percent of what the world invests in the military. Topics range from education to energy, technology to tourism, and many other points in between.

While it’s true that this site is quite similar to Worldmapper, SHOW/WORLD has more to offer. In addition to maps that are re-sized in relation to a given topic, SHOW/WORLD provides percentages and overall rankings for individual countries compared to the rest of the world. There’s also a space for recommended reading, as well as a comments section. In short, SHOW/WORLD is a great resource for geography teachers searching for new variations on the same old world map. -JIMI RADABAUGH

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As a classroom teacher my favorite unit to teach is on geography with the use of the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Each year after reading this story I would have my students become the character Flat Stanley.  Each student’s silhouette would be traced on white banner paper. They would then take their cutout home to work with their family to decorate this piece of banner paper and bring it to life to resemble themselves. Boy, did I unleash some creative juices — from real bluejeans and hair to actual enlarged photos of students’ faces.

They would then embark on their own Flat Stanley adventure by mailing their prototype to a family member or friend. As each flat student made their journey we would plot their destinations on a map. In addition to family and friends we would always send one Flat Stanley to the White House to meet the President.

The best part of the project, in addition to learning valuable geography, government, and home and family connection lessons, was to see what the recipients actually did with their guest. When our flat students returned home they had photo albums and journals of all of their adventures. I had pictures of flat students in Egypt on Camels in front of the pyramids, and at the Air Force Academy actually skydiving on a back of a cadet (I wonder who took the picture). Everywhere our flat students traveled they were taken to what ever historical landmark was nearby. What a wealth of teachable experiences my students were exposed to that would have never happened from just reading about them.

So now where do we go from here? It’s time for Flat Stanley to leave the 1964 way of traveling behind and travel like a 21st Century citizen in the digital world.

Digital Flat Stanley is a website that is taking this project to the digital level through video conferencing and wikis. Once you sign up for the project you are assigned a partner school with which you exchange your Flat Stanley. After your class has taken their guest on some adventures they will meet with their partner schools through a 30 minute video conference. During this time the students can share the adventures their guest went on around their community. At the completion of the project your Flat Stanley and students will have visited 4 different places. Just imagine the adventures your Flat Stanley may have and the new friends you will make along the way with this great 21st century project. -MONIQUE ST.LOUIS

Digital Flat Stanley

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Did you know Iceland celebrates their independence from Denmark every June 17th? How about that Samoa has 2,337 kilometers of roadways? Or that Ukraine is an actual country and not just a territory in Risk? You too can use facts like these to win at Jeopardy, lord it over your colleagues, or even impart it to your students. It’s easy with The World Factbook from the Central Intelligence Agency (yes, that Central Intelligence Agency).

The CIA World Factbook has information on pretty much every country on earth — not surprising, since it’s the CIA we’re talking about. They’ve got the skinny on every country’s climate, type of government, prominent religions, literacy rates, natural resources, infant mortality rate, and lots more information you’d probably never think to ask about. The only way to find out more about these places would be to visit them yourself.

This site should be your students’ first stop if they’re researching a country for a social studies or a foreign language class. They can also print a PDF of the book for offline usage. You seriously won’t believe the depth of information available at The World Factbook. See for yourself so you and your students can put those facts to good use. -BILL FERRIS

The World Factbook

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When I think “maps in the classroom,” I think: struggling with spring-loads, explaining out-dated political boundaries, and approximating locations off the map by pointing to a blank spot on the wall. It doesn’t have to be that way. Instructify has already written up a number of great websites (see related stuff below!) for changing the way you use maps in your classroom, and now we’ve got one more to add to the list: Wanderlust, brought to you by GOOD Magazine.

Wanderlust is an interactive graphic that allows you to take a gander at a number of famous paths. You’ll find factual routes (like Amelia Earhart’s second attempt to circumnavigate the globe) and fictitious routes (like Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth) and routes that are somewhere in between (like the Pan-Am Highway). Each of these historic journeys is plotted with points of interest, although, don’t expect too much content — it’s just a graphic after all. Wanderlust would be an ideal device to spice up a presentation. -MARIELLE PRINCE

Wanderlust

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Have you ever tried to have every computer in your class, or better yet, every computer in your lab go to Google Earth at the very same time? If you haven’t, don’t because those of us who have done this, have often earned the unending enmity of our school/district tech support. This is because there is no surer way to bring a network to its knees than running Google Earth, especially multiple copies from one site or node on a network. After many cookies, and cheerful smiles, you may repair that relationship with your network administrator. But how do you use Google Earth (a really wow tool) without causing a Google Earthquake on your network?

Your first option is to “cache” some of the big image files used in Google Earth. A less time and technically intensive solution is available though. Google Maps is starting to get a lot of the functionality of Google Earth, with less memory and bandwidth. Recent upgrades will let you add placemarks, and images to a map, and to save and share that information on maps. There are some “basic” overlays of photos and Wikipedia entries that can be added, and views include a satellite option. You can even export KML files to Google Earth. People are starting to do Google Lit Trips on Maps.

Don’t let “poor” memory keep you from using Google to teach geography in your class or lab, just use Google Maps instead. -ALICE MERCER

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