I’ve just completed an article on the use of Google Earth as a teaching tool to make decisions about wind farm locations. Read article: Investigating Wind Energy with Google Earth
The suggested activites make use of a number of web sites. Creative Commons images linked to Google Earth come from Geograph. The MAGIC interactive map, an excellent UK government resource provides geographic information on a wide range of environmental themes. The lesson also uses the DTI wind speed database.
Investigating Wind Energy gets students to use a number of fairly simple, yet powerful applications to arrive at a decision about a site for a wind farm. They are handling real geographical data, giving the task lots of credibility. Wind energy is an emotive subject and the exercise will get students to question their own values and attitudes. There is plenty to challenge students of different abilities along with an option to extend the activity with some simple modelling in Sketch Up and Photoshop Elements.
I would welcome feedback!
Simon Renshaw has sent a really well-executed Google Tour of the Holderness coast.
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This is a classic coastal place study, and the tour makes use of map extracts and the excellent photgraphs by Andrew Stacey.
Excellent effort!
Thanks to a recent post at SLN, I’ve discovered Maplecroft Maps. This is a remarkable site that serves up attractive, interactive maps on a variety of environmental, social, economic and polictical themes.
Close analysis of the data is encouraged; one can overlay maps in order to discern relationships between data sets, and a hotspot icon draws attention to critical information.
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The maps examine the response of business and government to the various issues, and icons describe cases of particularly good, or by contrast, poor examples of corporate responsibility.
The site will appeal across the KS3/4 geography curriculum, particularly for more able students with an inquisitive nature, and should be indispensible to A level students looking for material on sustainable development.
I’ve revised my Google Map of a local farm which now includes thumbnail images in the information windows, as well as links to a photoset on Flickr.
I use the map in a GCSE agriculture lesson.
On this page I show how Google Earth can be employed to underpin a realistic decision-making process, acting as a comprehensive GIS that allows students of all abilities to analyse complex spatial data with ease. Overlays provide detailed information on population density, household income, liquefaction and landslide potential as well as underlying geology. In addition, students can draw on the native Google Earth layers such as 3D buildings, roads, railways, terrain and public buildings, to inform their decisions. There is plenty of scope for independent research, and students should be able to access the highest levels of achievement in both Geography and ICT.
Related posts here and here and also here!
This is the first in a series of posts in which I’ll try to show how it is possible to make use of a hand-held GPS in the classroom.
In order to follow the example, you’ll need a hand-held GPS. I use a Garmin, mainly because of the outstanding compatibility across various software packages. In addition, the freeware GPS data manager GPS Utility or Easy GPS is required.
Scenario: Kids have been out with a hand-held GPS marking the location of traditional signposts for a simple mapping project. The method is starightforward, at each signpost discovery, simply record a waypoint in the GPS. Connect the unit up to a computer and download the waypoints to a GPS data manager such as Easy GPS and save them as a .GPX file. (The waypoints can equally be saved as a .KML file for viewing in Google Earth)
Now visit GPS Visualizer and upload your .GPX file into the Google Maps form. Then prepare to be very happy as your waypoints appear on the map! Here is an example using actual data:
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