Google Earth Assignment

Fourth Grade Science:
Standard 1: students will understand that water changes state as it moves through the water cycle.
Objective 1; Describe the relationship between heat energy, evaporation and condensation of water on Earth.
a. Identity the relative amount and kind of water found in various locations on Earth (e.g. oceans have most of the water, glaciers and snowfields contain most fresh water.)

I chose this topic because I thought it would be fun for students to get a visual understanding of the relative sizes of bodies of water and to really understand how much water there is in the world. This might hopefully lead to a discussion about why some places have very little water, why some don’t, and how much water is actually drinkable in the world.

I will be having students label bodies of water, measure the width of bodies of water, compare how many other bodies of water are in the area, and create paths across the ocean. I like these activities because they directly address what I am wanting the students to learn. First the students will label all the Great Lakes on a separate assignment to help them learn which lakes are which. Second I will have them measure the width of the Arctic Ocean. We can then discuss that the Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean and talk about how it compares to the size of a river or lake. Thirdly, I will have the students look at the Nile River. They will look around and see how many other bodies of water are close by. This will allow us to then talk about how important the Nile River is to the people who live there. Lastly, I will have the students create paths across the Pacific Ocean from different destination to give them an idea of how large the ocean is and how many different peoples from different continents travel across it to get to different places.

I like using Google Earth because it helps students get a real and accurate picture of these bodies of water that a regular map could not convey. It also allows the students to interact by measuring, making paths, comparing, and such. Google Earth helps the students realize how real this stuff we are talking about is, which a flat map they colored could not convey to the same extent.