I came up with this activity at about 8.55am this morning as my class was coming in. So I decided to do it with them. I chose a city and zoomed down to street level, but so you could see a few miles worth of the city.
I then asked them to guess where we were. I then realised we could play a 10 questions type game – where they have only 10 questions to guess the name of the city. It was great fun and soon they were firing away with the questions.
- Is it in the UK?
- Is it in Australia?
- Is it Athens?
- Does the city have any famous buildings?
Wow! This last question blew me away for about 9.00am in the morning – so I answered, “Yes it has some very famous historic buildings you might know.” Well it didn’t take long for a couple of children to guess it was Rome.
I then zoomed out a little and switched on the 3D Buildings network link (only in Google Earth 4) and we looked at the Collosseum. The children were enthralled as we panned and zoomed into the ancient structure. We even navigated so we were standing on one of the terraces of the great amphitheatre. Well the “wows” soon spread through the room – personally this sort of technology should be doing that.
There is nothing quite like starting the day with a “WOW”
We have to remember we are just looking at our planet, but it is Google Earth that allows us such easy and unique access to these wonders.
So I got to thinkin’ as you do…how can I extend this game a little. So how about if the children were able to exchange a question for a certain amount of zoomed altitude! So the children only have 9 questions to figure out the answer and I zoom further our by say 2000ft Will it help or will they lose the detail they need? Risky…
What about exchanging 5 questions for a 3D model of a building in the city somwhere? Will they know the building? Will it help? Can they then ask questions about the building? (Will I even know the answers at 9.00am in the morning!!)
We posted to our blog where we had been and I must say we all had a great start to our Monday.
So where will we go tomorrow…?
What a fantastic activity. My KS4 ASD class loved it!The simplest ideas are often the best…
Thanks!
Hi Colin – of course I will keep posting my ideas, thankyou for your comment and supporting the blog. Great to hear you like the idea.
Thanks for the kind comment Kathy – glad you appreciated the idea.
Thank you for sharing all that you do. It is amazing…. and practical!
By geez, you always seem to come up with great ideas! Can you write my teaching program for me? Or better still, just send me a copy of yours.
Seriosuly, please keep blogging and tweeting about what you are doing, it is so valuable. (my staff now think I have creative tasks!!)
Wow! What a great activity. And the class blog reflects the student’s enthusiasm too. Well done. And all 5 minutes before class started too!
What a simple, cool idea,..I will try it out and pass it on to the staff Thanks so much for the inspiration. It is the first steps that can be the hardest and ideas like this make thoae steps easier.
By the way I found you through 2cents Worth, David Warlicks Blog.