I am a Year 6 teacher in Nottinghamshire in the UK and I would invite any colleagues to post Google Earth resources that would directly support any area or topic of the foundation and primary curriculum that is taught in their schools.

I look forward to seeing what we can all create.

MrBarrett111,

Welcome to the BBS. I think your idea is great. I hope that people will continue to contribute things to this forum. I took the liberty of tweaking your file a little. I hope you don't mind. I like to show people some of the possibilities that are out there. I can think of only a few, but combined the BBS has already come up with some very unique ideas. Again welcome to the BBS, and keep all the good ideas coming.

Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team of men set out to conquer the Antarctic continent as the world became embroiled in World War One.

All but forgotten back home in Britain, Shackleton's expedition drifted with the ice for nearly two years. Facing hunger, loneliness, near-mutiny and what has come to be known as the greatest small-boat journey in history, this is their story.

Much of the information in this resource can be seen at the website for Amercan Natural History - http://www.amnh.org
and the Kodak site has an excellent resource on Shackleton's voyage.
http://www.kodak.com

How can this be used in school?
Well much of what happened was recorded in the sailors' diaries and this could be explored using Google Earth placemarks and descriptions to plot their course.

UK Literacy Strategy links include:
Letter writing: Year 3 Term 3
Recounts: Year 5 Term 1
Diaries: Year 6 Term 1
Poetry through other text types: Year 6 Term 2

A simple set of data showing each continental area.
I have also added some basic information taken from Wikipedia.

I am just adding this again so that it can be seen individually.

A simple set of data to start the Geography QCA Unit 10 - Village Life in india.
Standards Site

A useful resource to introduce the topic of shelters. A variety of houses and shelters from around the world. Use in tour mode or look at individual pictures.

This should be used as a whole class with key questions from the QCA:

-What materials have been used to build the shelter?
-How has the shelter been made?
-Why has the shelter been made this way?
-What are the different parts called? eg frame, canopy
-What do the different parts do?
-Who will use the shelter?
-Who needs shelter?
-Which constructions are the strongest?

See Standards site for further info.

Unit 6A: Shelters
Section 1: Investigative, disassembly and evaluative activities (IDEAs)

Info for resource taken from http://www.hgpho.to/wfest/house/house-e.html and CIA Factbook post (Flags etc)

Citizenship at key stages 1 and 2 (Year 1-6)
Unit 05: Living in a diverse world
Section 3: What are different places like?

Standards Website QCA Unit Link

I have collected a variety of resources for the introduction of this specific unit. Although ideal for this section of the QCA unit it could easily be adapted for other sections, as a starting point for discussion or simple written work.

Resource includes:

> Simple placemarks of common holiday destinations. (Spain, France etc) Explore with the chldren other destinations and add their names to the placemarks.

> Placeopedia. If this is checked then once you have stopped exploring GE for a few seconds relevant placemarks will pop up with links to Wikipedia articles. It is just like a live encyclopaedia as you explore. Very good example of a non fiction text and to understand more about the differences between these places and the children's homes.

> World borders. This is important to highlight the clear distinction between the countries. Much easier for children to understand the borders and for you as a teacher to find Bulgaria for example!!

> 50 Nearest Flikr photos. This is a fantastic resource to use to explore the world's diversity - but it comes with a big health warning! The resource will load small thumbnails of tagged photographs around where you pause exploring. This gives you a link to the photographs - a great resource that you must have a go at using.

WARNING: I am uncertain about whether the photos pass through LEA filtering or not. Like any searching on the web, prior experience is important. Conduct the navigation and look at the photos that pop up beforehand. They are mostly landscapes etc. But please be aware. I have added Naxos and Santorini - 2 Greek islands that I know have some good photos on.

This is an emerging idea - so I would be happy to know what you all think of it.

Looking down upon lots of cities and places, as we all do, I realised there is an awful lot of real maths involved in what we see. Shape, number, data handling, fractions etc.

I have started with Maths in Las Vegas.
This work is probably relevant for Year 5 or 6
The resource includes:
> Identifying 3D Shapes using the 3D buildings layer. (Could be applied to lots of cities)
> Data handling using a webcam to watch and count traffic and pedestrians.
> Counting the number of cars in car parks - looking at these as a fraction of the number of car parking spaces.
> Area of the car park - using the measure tool in GE Pro if appropriate.

The work is labelled A, B, C etc and children could work on an interactive whiteboard as a group or individually at computers.

(Would appreciate any comments)

Once more another initial idea that is worth posting for anyone's thoughts.

Blueghost.co.uk has supplied a great resource which is in the Dynamic Layers forum. It provides live traffic and travel information for the UK.

This can be used in maths when exploring time and travel times. This work is probably for Year 5 or 6. (times are in 24 hr clock)

> Ensure the resource is checked in My Places list.
> Navigate to your school's region.
> Explore what train stations there are in the surrounding area.
> Decide upon a journey and click on the relevant station.
> Select 'Click here to see train running times' in the placemark.
> The web page should open up - scroll down to the current information.
> Explore departure times and plan a journey.

This could be completed as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard - a group in the independent time could then plan a similar journey using the interactive whiteboard - with or without support.

Key Objective Year 5 NNS:
Use all four operations to solve simple word problems involving numbers and quantities, including time, explaining methods and reasoning.

Key Objectives Year 6 NNS:
Identify and use the appropriate operations (including combinations of operations) to solve word problems involving numbers and quantities, and explain methods and reasoning.

Solve a problem by extracting and interpreting information presented in tables, graphs and charts.

That's really interesting -- I like the cars-in-parking lot idea. I think one of the most valuable math skills is correlation. Rather than keep it *just* percentage or fraction of the car lot that's full, you could compare the percentage of parking lots that are full in five different cities and search for possible reasons. Try Phoenix vs Manhattan, for example -- real estate and parking fees are drastically different!

Also, the time that the photo is taken can be (somewhat) determined by relative length of shadow. You could compare 5 or 10 parking lots in similar areas but in which the photo was taken at a different time. You could even make a great x-y scatter plot to look for trends.

In my school, with a US -based curriculum, we introduce X-Y scatter plots in grade 5, and reinforce them in grade 6. I'm not sure about the UK curriculum, but Edward Tufte believes (and I agree with him) that an X-Y correlation plot is far more informative than a bar graph. I'm always on the lookout for ways kids can collect data that shows a correlation, graph it, and seek explanations for any relationship they discover!

Warren (aka Zip)