Monday, August 13, 2012

Google Earth "Amazing Race Singapore"

To further engage the students in self-directed learning - I have created a trail using Google Earth. The students will participate in this virtual Amazing Race and learn more about the tourist attractions in Singapore. I have embedded some videos in some of the placemark so that they can find out more about the attractions. For some of the placemarks, I have also shown the street view in which the students can "experience" being in the area themselves without having to be there physically.  

To make the trail more competitive, the students would have to submit their answers to the questions attached to the 10 placemarks. The students will submit their answers on the Google form which I have completed as shown below. The data can be collated easily using Google form.


Or you can download from the file attached here
https://sites.google.com/a/moe.edu.sg/sec-4-geography/google-earth

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Use of Google Earth for map reading

Use of Google Earth for map reading. One of the problems which we faced in map reading is that students could not see the geographical features or landform represented on topographical maps. We can use Google Earth to help them see the actual landform and to relate that to map reading. The students will be engaged as they "fly in" to the actual place using Google Earth and compare the geographical features or landform to that shown on the topographical map. Learning will be enhanced by sparking their curiosity using authentic data which is part of Geographical inquiry. There is self-directed learning as the students are motivated to find out more about features which are represented on the topographical map and that of the actual landscape in Google Earth.

The teacher can add Placemark in Google Earth to help them see the features. The students can zoom in the area to have a closer look at the feature or to zoom out to study the spatial relationship. Using google earth, the students can tilt the view and see a more 3D representation of the feature as well. You can refer to my post on how to use Google Earth - http://ezitnew.blogspot.sg/2012/06/using-google-earth-for-geographical.html

Click here to download the Google Earth file for the coastal area south of UK 
http://lily_lee68.webs.com/Coastal%20area%20south%20of%20UK.kmz

2010 2193/2 O Level Paper Map Extract of a Coastal area South of UK (Axmouth)

 





Google Earth can also be used in topics such as plate tectonics and weather studies. You need to have Google Earth before the following kmz files can work.