Mystery Map - High School Human Geography

Map Race and Geoguessr are great tools for students to gain clues as to the place in the world that is being shown.  While this allows students and adults to get the experience, it doesn't allow for students to create their own place, clues, and game.

Enter our idea.

Mrs. Brylski and I have created a project in which students create five clues using Google Maps, Awesome Screencapture Chrome Extension, Google Presentations, Google Drive, and Customized Google Maps.

To begin I chose a place that I liked in the world.  I used the Google Street View version in Google maps.  I then used the Awesome Screencapture extension to gather five photos pertaining to the place of choice.  We are having the students create the pictures from easy to difficult.  In addition, students will be creating five additional clues to add to the pictures.  These include:

• HDI
• Population Pyramid
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Folk Culture

If the links to these clues are provided without any revealing names of the places, the link can simply be added to the slide.  If the information has revealing information, the Screen Capture blurring option was used.  Once the images were clipped, the images were uploaded to Google Drive and made visible by the link.

Once the students create there slide show of clues, they will tell the teacher their place in the world.  The teacher will add a place mark on a customized Google map.  The students will create (probably their first) customized Google map for all of their answers from other student's presentations.

After the answers are revealed in the Master Mystery Map (only shown after the teacher receives the answers from students and their guesses of other students), students will use the Google maps tools to determine the proximity of their guess to the actual place.  The closer the guess, the greater the point total.

View The Example Mystery Map

View The Students Presenting and Guessing!



Impressive Creation By A Student!  She really worked to make it challenging!


Impact On Students:
Critical Thinking: Deciding easy to difficult clue choices will require some thought.
Creativity:  In creating my example, I wanted some help in the form of street signs and building signs that could give some clues.  Students will need to do this as well.  This will take some creativity to find and use certain pictures.

Google Custom Maps and CNN Student News

Our seventh grade social studies teachers, Mrs. Kust and Mrs. Brittnacher, would like students to create a custom Google Map based on events discussed in CNN Student News episodes.

On a Chromebook, students will watch a CNN Student View episode, record in some way (digitally or on paper) the cities or countries that are featured, some details about the event, and place all of that information on a point on a map. Students can also share the map with their instructor similar to sharing any Google document.

Watch Tutorial


The instructor asked me to include specifics about the information that students should include in their summary of information for each point on the map. This occurs at 2:17 of video.  In addition, the teacher did not want the sharing option at the end as she did not want in email inbox to be flooded.  The sharing part has been removed from the end of the tutorial.

View Updated Video

Google Maps Tour Builder Tutorial

Reviewing and providing information on Google Maps Tour Builder provided great feedback from our staff. A request came in from a staff member for a video tutorial.

Done.

Video Link

*The video is for teachers and students.  Consider playing the tutorial in front of students!

Google Maps Tour Builder

Because of @rmbyrne 's FreeTech4Teachers post on Google Maps Tour Builder, I was able to create a tour of our school district's schools.  Our district encompasses a large geographical area consisting of five elemendary schools, one middle school, and one high school, a Google Map Tour was a perfect medium to show case our schools.

In 2009, my students created Google Earth Flying Tours.  While it was easy in the end, there was a learning curve that caused some students to struggle.

Google Maps Tour Builder required little to no learning curve.  Since we are a Google Apps For Education school, logging in and creating a tour will be a very simple process.

An additional bonus is the ease at which one can keep the tour private or share with a peer or staff member. Sharing documents through Google is second nature to our students so this process will be efficient.

View My Tour   View How To Make A Tour

Google Earth is available in BETA for Chromebooks
Google Earth integrated with Google Maps

The impact on the students...

• Collaboration--Students could work in partners or groups to create their tour
• Creativity--adding additional pictures that students take or find to each destination can provide additional insight.  The opportunity to include additional comments for each destination is important for deeper understanding.  Students need to determine the best path for their tour.
• Critical Thinking--similar to creativity
• Citizenship--students will understand that the map while by default is private, it may be shared with peers and teachers.  The map is on the web!

Importing Google Map KMZ File Into iPad Year 2

Last year, the U.S. History teachers created a Google Map kmz file to import into Google Earth on the iPad.    In year two of integrating technology, we will do the same process, but students will need to get the file from a teacher's website.

View the process below.
Step 1


Step 2



Want to embed the tutorials into your websites?  Simply get the orginial and embed into your site.
U.S. History Civil War Battles Google Maps & iPads
Google Maps KMZ File To iPad

Google Maps Allows For Us To View Battles