Google Earth Tour - Lesson Plan

Name: Craig Lichtenberg, Terry Davis, Christine Rocks, Jennifer Cortez

Date: October 29, 2008
Grade Level/Subject: 5/Social Studies

Prerequisite Knowledge:

Have a comprehensive discussion about World War II and discuss key events that have happened
and where these events have taken place. Assumption: prior knowledge how to use Google
Earth.

Approximate Time: 40-45 minutes

Student Objectives/Student Outcomes:

• Students will be able to identify physical geography of important sites that were key to
the history of World War II
• Students will be able to \observe artifacts via pictures on Google Earth in order to
research more about the significance of that location

Illinois State Standards: Early Elementary

As a result of their schooling, students will be able to:

17A. Locate, describe and explain places, regions and features on the Earth.
• Use maps and other geographic representations and instruments to gather information
about people, places and environments.

17C. Understand relationships between geographic factors and society.

• Describe the relationships among location of resources, population distribution and
economic activities (e.g., transportation, trade, communications).

17D. Understand the historical significance of geography.

• Describe how physical characteristics of places influence people’s perceptions and their
roles in the world over time.

Materials:

A computer, Google Earth Software, worksheet

Procedure:

To get accustomed to the software, all you need to do is to open the search engine Google and
search the word “Google Earth”. Click on this link and begin a download of the software. When
downloaded, to find a place, go to the top left hand search box and type in the desired area.
Google Earth will then find this area. To see a close up of the area, utilize the zoom feature on
the right side bar.

Students will be put into groups of three to four. Divide the different locations on the worksheet
up and assign them to each group. (For example: two or three locations per group) Let students
go on the computers to start their search.

This worksheet will have different areas that were key to World War II on it. For example, areas
like Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima, Hiroshima, locations of the Battle of Normandy, concentration
camps like Auschwitz, and more would be included on this worksheet. The objective would be
for the students to type in these key words into the search box and Google Earth would take the
student to that area. The students can click on boxes which represent different artifacts that
people have uploaded to Google Earth. These artifacts include photographs of the present and
the past.

While looking at these artifacts, students will need to pick one artifact per location to research
more about on the internet. They would then write this information on their worksheet. Students
will then need to print off a picture of this artifact and turn it in with the worksheet.

Groups will present what they found and the rest of the class will fill out the rest of their
worksheet according to what their classmates say.
 World War II Web Search!

Instructions: Your job as an investigator is to find these locations using Google Earth. You need
to find one picture from each location and research more about it.

For example: When researching the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland, you can print a
picture of the crematoriums and research the significance of this artifact. Then write a paragraph
about what you found about how this relates to World War II.

1. Pearl Harbor

2. Hiroshima

3. Iwo Jima

4. Nagasaki

5. Auschwitz

6. Midway

7. Washington D.C.

8. Moscow

9. Berlin

10. London