Google Maps

Hooray - finally a tool that I have used prior to this course.

I have found Google Maps useful for years. Before owning a phone with satelite navigation or a Garmin in car navgation system we used Google Maps to get anywhere.

We'd go to Google Maps, type in the address and ask for directions from home. Fabulous, printable directions followed with alternative routes and approximate times.

More recently we looked at satelite images of Blackwater before moving here. "Oh, it looks very dry and brown. Not many houses have swimming pools. That's our house - looks very close to the main highway and the railway line! That camp over our back fence looks much bigger than I remember!" Interesting research was done without leaving the comfort of home!

It was great to find that Google Maps has a large section devoted to educators -
http://www.google.com/educators/p_maps.html
Looking at the educators information it seems that Google Maps can be applied across many subjects and age levels. I was particularly interested in the Earth Science section with a world map and information about the latest earthquakes worldwide. http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/.

Closely linked is Google Earth which also has an Educators site -http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/. The wealth of information on both Google sites is huge.

On a more simple mapping note I need to remember -http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/create/ . I find this easier than Google Maps for pinning out routes on a map. This could be used in maths for measuring and calculating distance. I would like to ask students to devise a (safe) cross country course for HPE of X distance using the streets in the school vicinity.