Our Summer Vacation

This summer I was privileged enough to attend the Google Geo Teacher’s Institute at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA. It was two days of pure Google-iciousness that focused on the geo tools, Google Maps and Earth. In class today, I had students complete a short Google Form about their travels this summer. That information was then imported into a Google Map, and here is the result:

If you click on each of the map pins, you’ll be able to travel the world with seventh graders…without actually traveling with 36 seventh graders.

Photo Captions Map

In order to share with my students the number of people (and where they’re from) that voted in our Photo Captions Contest, I created a Google Map with a pin for each of the responders. I can’t wait to share this with my students!

 

Birthday Geography

We’ve been having fun with geography in seventh grade this week. Students are using their dates of birth as coordinates to plot on the Google Map below:

They are also planning a birthday party for themselves and their friends that will be located at their birthdate coordinates.  After discussing our parties in class, we came up with the following list of things they need to consider while planning their party.

• Climate
• Location for party (famous landmark, national park, middle of the forest)
• Food and drinks (items that are found locally)
• Music (what kind of music do they listen to in that area of the world?)
• Activities (what are the popular sports there? what activities might you want to do in the area?)
• Decorations
• Traditions (what do the people of that country normally do for birthdays?)
• Dress Code (what should you wear in that climate? Are there rules about clothing for that culture?)
• Animals
• Protection (will you be in a dangerous part of the world?)
• Transportation

I can’t wait to hear all about the parties students are planning for themselves!