Expanding the Boundaries of Google Earth

A number of intermediate students in Florence, Italy have the good fortune of being taught by a teacher who continues to learn new ways to engage the tools of Google SketchUp and Google Earth. I recently had the chance to interview Guzman Tierno, to learn more about how he's leading students to achieve expectations by designing objects that can experience gravity and can interact in 3D worlds.



Related Links:
Google Pro Instructor License, FREE for Education
Google Earth Lessons
SketchUp Vehicles Experience Gravity
Drive Your Car in Google Earth
Granacci SketchUp Creations 2009
Guzman Tierno's Class Blog
10 Ways to Harness the Power of Google SketchUp

Additionally, you may be interested in this short but powerful Project Spectrum video that highlights how Google SketchUp can be leveraged to meet the needs of autistic students.

10 Ways to Harness the Power of Google SketchUp

With the recent release of Google SketchUp 7, I posted a brief interview with Guzman Tierno, who has used SketchUp to engage 13 year old students in the creation of 3-D products.



Guzman's lessons are available for sharing, but I'd like also to suggest a few other potential rich project ideas:

1] get with the holiday spirit in designing a virtual Santa's village;
2] create new and improved student desks to accommodate learning tools of the future;
3] draft floor plans for new (or old) classrooms, schools; homes; shopping centres...;
4] reproduce existing products in 3-D;
5] review Google Patent Search before constructing products from various time periods;
6] host an invention convention where new ideas are shared in Google Earth;
7] recommend a new school/community playground or recreation area by construction demos;
8] recreate famous movie scenes (The Wizard of Oz; Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; Mutiny on the Bounty...);
9] explore news archives before creating a virtual reenactment a famous event;
10] design and build new 3 dimensional board games.

To get started, visit the 3D Warehouse, or watch the Google Sketchup video tutorials:



Do you have any ideas to add?

Google Earth and Refugees

Google Earth has partnered with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, to add a graphical layer to Google Earth raising awareness about the plight of refugees.

I made a short video in lieu of breakfast to show how you can leverage this tool:



Did you catch the last bit of the video about Google Sky?

The Night Sky Comes Alive

At 8:00 p.m., the lights in the house went out, as we joined countless millions in celebrating Earth Hour. Thanks to a few candles, the kids continued to play on, in what will likely be a memorable experience.

A few teens in the room cracked: "Can't we please have light? What do you say we power off for 8 full hours beginning around 11 p.m.?" and "I say we turn off all the lights for 12 hours... beginning at 8 a.m.!"

While many may miss the connection to global warming, the dimming of the lights at my home resulted in a few interesting questions and reflection, but shortly turned into a 'sleepover' atmosphere for my family and our overnight guests.

My youngest wanted to know if we might really be able to see more stars, and although he didn't wait for the answer (dinosaurs were waiting...), some may be interested to know that Google has embedded the night sky in the latest version of Google Earth.

Constellations that change based on time and location; planets rotate around the sun; and multiple images from the Hubble telescope provide rich views of "Where no man has gone before..."