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Resources for Beginners to Gurus

Using the search filters below you’ll find easy, step-by-step guides and tutorials on Google Earth and mapping tools, product information, and classroom resources to help you integrate Google’s Geo technology into your instructional practice.

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A Lesson in Lifestyle
With Google Earth, students can learn all about the lives and cultures of people around the globe and compare and contrast others lifestyles to their own.
Classroom Resource
This is Home
A Storytelling Odyssey
Journalist and National Geographic Fellow Paul Salopek is walking the globe in the footsteps of our ancient forebears. Follow along as he reveals hidden stories of Earth’s remote corners, and of the people who inhabit them.
Join the Journey
Classroom activities
An Antarctic Expedition
See the route and highlights of Lindblad Expeditions ship "National Geographic Explorer" December 2015 voyage.
Sail to Antarctica
Arvind on Google Expeditions
“I find the features on the Expedition app really useful, especially the way that you can have students focus in on certain areas using the pointers while they are inside of a particular scene.”
Explore more
Baseball for All
Students will use Google Earth and geometry to explore how far baseball players need to hit the ball to hit a home run and right out of the stadium.
Hitting home runs.
Student Worksheet
Become an Explorer
Learn more about this collaboration between National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions that gives teachers an opportunity to explore the extremes of our planet.
Become a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow
Beth Thomas: GTF 2015
Compare Earth and the Solar System Planets
Our home planet has a lot in common with other solar system planets. While experiencing the Google Earth Voyager story “Planetary Exploration on The Earth” created by Miraikan, explore the world from the viewpoint of “the globe as part of the solar system.”
View in Google Earth
Creating Stories in Earth
Google Earth’s creation tools allow you to create your own projects. Add points, text, and rich multimedia content to share stories and maps visualized on a 3D globe.
Getting Started Guide
See stories created for classrooms
Current Events on Earth
Add Google Earth to the daily routine by asking students to take local current events and search for related issues happening in other parts of the world.
Guiding Questions
Detectives & Travel Agents with Carmen Sandiego
Test your student's geography sleuthing skills with Carmen Sandiego. They’ll act as both detectives and travel agents as they become true digital globe trotters.
The Crown Jewels Caper
Classroom Activity
Dr. David Saah
Learn about the Director of the University of San Francisco's Geospatial Lab's use of Earth Engine to teach remote sensing.
Read more
Earth Energy for Elementary Students
After reading "How Wind Becomes Electricity", ask your students to write an opinion essay outlining the pros and cons of using wind farms to generate energy.
Writing Exercise Guide
How Wind Becomes Electricity
Earth for 4th Graders
Help your classroom articulate complex issues in their local community by exposing them to cultures around the world with quick 15 minute exercises in Google Earth.
Guiding Questions
Earth for 5th Graders
Try quick hands-on activities in Google Earth to show your students the practical application of the ideas and theories that they are learning about in class.
Guiding Questions
Earth for 6th Graders
Get class started by using satellite and Street View images to explore the world and relate to any subject across the curriculum.
Guiding Questions
Earth for 7th Graders
Need a quick and engaging activity to keep the kids occupied? Let your students independently explore Earth and answer questions that address your next subject.
Guiding Questions
Earth for 8th Graders
Warm your students up for any period with fun 15 minute Google Earth exercises. Math, science, history, civics? All subjects can be explored with Google Earth.
Guiding Questions
Evidence on Earth
Use Voyager to expose 6-8th graders to real world applications of technology in scientific field research and then have them write about the evidence they find.
Writing Exercise Guide
Science in the Natural World
Expand Literacy Horizons
Have students draw real world cultural connections from the characteristics of fairy tales and turn those traits into a fairy tale of their own creation.
Writing Exercise Guide
Fairy Tales from Around the World
Explore the Earth’s Terrain in 3D
Discover the world’s incredible physical geography by using the compass to tilt your perspective into a 3D view.
Navigate in 3D
Explorers: Age of Encounter
The explorations of Samuel de Champlain, Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet, and Renee de LaSalle opened the interior of North America to European settlement and trade.
Explore with
Lesson plan
Explorers: Early Global Connectors
Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Zheng He heralded from different continents and undertook decades-long journeys for different reasons.
Connect with
Lesson plan
Explorers: Great Waters
Follow six bold navigators as they open the globe to exploration and claim territory for European empires.
Journey with
Lesson plan
Explorers: Vikings
Five hundred years before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic, Eric the Red and his son Leif Ericson founded settlements in Greenland and North America.
Discover with
Lesson plan
Exploring Earth’s Ecosystems
Have 6th graders read and watch examples of how ecologists study different aspects of ecosystems, including their function and relationship with humans.
Inquiry Guide
HHMI Biointeractive
Extreme Biodiversity on the High Seas
Join Mission Blue on a high seas adventure to the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Hope Spot where we follow marine biologists in the field tagging turtles, tracking sharks and more.
Hop aboard
Finding Home
At 5 years old, Saroo Brierley was lost in India. From a continent away, and 25 years later, he found his way home with Google Earth.
See Saroo's Journey
Classroom Activity
Follow India’s Lifelines
Follow the paths of Indian rivers and learn how they shape landscape, culture, and life.
Rivers of India
Download KML (Telugu)
Geography for Tomorrow
Arvind Sridhar created the nonprofit organization Geography for Tomorrow as a Bay Area teenager. Since then he has expanded his educational program globally to over 350 underserved youths.
Learn about GFT
Get Started With Google Earth
Learn about all of the features that you can find in Google Earth and how easy it is to include the tool into your learning objectives and lesson plans.
Explore Earth
Google Earth Help
Google Earth
Google Earth is now web-based and works on Chromebooks! Find out what else is new and find ways to use it to discover more about our World.
Explore now
Learn more
Google Earth Engine
Google’s cloud-based geospatial platform enables users to visualize and analyze satellite images of the planet at an unprecedented scale.
Analyze Earth imagery
Learn more
Ground to Clouds to Space
Google Earth lets you explore the streets of cities and then jump to a view from space. Learn more about the data that powers Earth.
Listen to Nat & Friends
Guided by Stars
Join traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa and crew as they circumnavigate the globe using stars and swells on an epic Worldwide Voyage.
Voyage with Hōkūleʻa
Helping People and Animals Coexist
Get a look behind the scenes at the conservation work National Geographic Explorer Dr. Krithi Karanth is doing to help the Indian population coexist with neighboring wildlife.
Behind the scenes
Classroom activities
Humans & Wildlife
Humans have been interacting with wild animals and their habitats for thousands of years. Does our interaction with animals and their environment help or hurt?
Inquiry Guide
Protecting Africa's Wildlife
Immersive Global Imagery
Dive into Google's huge library of 360-degree imagery using Street View. Just click on pegman and follow the blue lines to where you want to go in Google Earth.
View Street View’s Best in Earth
Visit the Street View Gallery
Map Projections
Learn about why Greenland appears to be huge relative to other countries.
View the Classroom Activity
Math on Maps
Explore any subject matter with Earth as a canvas. Why not start with geometric principles? Media4Math’s story explores one of the most important shapes an architect can use: triangles.
Triangular Structures
More Media4Math Earth Stories
My Maps
Collaborative map making using points, lines and polygons. My Maps are saved to, and can be shared with others through, Google Drive.
Make A Map
Learn More
Online Geo Courses
Arvind and his team have created three online courses, available to everyone, that teach geocoding and mapping technologies, geography of the world and our cosmos.
Enroll today!
Passport to ELA
Help your students learn how to use technology and digital media strategically and capably by incorporating Google Earth to your English Language Art lessons.
Guiding Questions
Passport to Geography
Infuse learning the essential elements of geography into a daily classroom routine for 4th-8th grade students with 15 minute inquiry exercises.
Guiding Questions
Take a quiz on Natural Wonders
Passport to Math
Bring mathematical concepts to the map with a 15 minute Google Earth activity that students between 4th-8th grade can drive independently.
Guiding Questions
Math and Architecture: Circular Structures
Passport to Science
Go anywhere on Earth, and you’ll be able to pose a scientific question. Try a 15 minute exercise with your students to get them warmed up for class.
Guiding Questions
See scientists doing field research
Passport to Social Studies
Warm your classroom up with a 15 minute Google Earth activity by randomly selecting a location in the world and relating it to social studies concept.
Guiding Questions
Pristine Seas
Join Dr. Enric Sala on his mission to protect the last truly wild places in the ocean.
Explore Underwater
Classroom Activities
Quick Access to the World
Geography for Tomorrow brings both local and global experiences to their program. Opening up Google Maps is one way they quickly orient students to different places in the world.
Take a Tour
Read ABCs from Space
Is there an alphabet to be found in the landforms of the Earth? Of course! NASA satellite imagery and astronaut photography will show your students where.
View on Earth
Classroom Activity
Reflect on the Importance of Coral Reefs at the Center of Life
Indonesia's Raja Ampat islands are located at the Coral Triangle, which is known as the center of life. The coral reefs in the area are inhabited by the most diverse kinds of fishes and coral in the world. Explore under the beautiful sea, and learn about the roles the coral reefs play in sustaining diversity.
View in Google Earth
Stories Golden Eagles Tell
Together Raptor View Research Institute, MPG Ranch and Inspired Classroom share how Golden Eagles in North America navigate their changing landscapes and the dangers they face.
Join the Flight of Apex Predators
Classroom Activity Guide
Take a Virtual Visit
Visit a 3D view of the University of San Francisco campus in Google Earth. Explore the surrounding neighborhood located a few blocks from Golden Gate Park.
Fly to Campus
The Diary of a Young Girl
GLT Global ED mapped the locations surrounding the events documented in Anne Frank's diary. Explore the story to better understand the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
Explore the Story
The Yawanawá Now
Take your 7th grade students into the heart of the Amazon Rainforest to learn about the people who live there and the challenges they face in these modern times.
Inquiry Guide
I am Amazon
This is Home
While the countries, cultures and climates may differ, knowing we all have a place to call home is a first step to understanding everything we have in common.
Visit Traditional Homes
Classroom Activity
To Zoo or Not to Zoo
Pose this question: should animals be kept in captivity in zoos and animal parks? Explore the pros and cons of keeping animals in captivity with 6th-8th graders.
Writing Exercise Guide
National Geographic Photo Ark
Trek Across the Galápagos
Join a modern-day mapping expedition, as scientists and researchers use Street View imagery to study the land, coast and sea of the Galápagos Islands.
Walk in Darwin’s Footsteps
Virtual Travel Journalism
Use UNESCO World Heritage sites and Street View to inspire 6th-8th graders to write a sensory-filled narrative that takes place in one of the locations.
Writing Exercise Guide
UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Visit Spectacular and Iconic Bridges Around the World
Bridges are one of the most symbolic structures which represent civilization. Enjoy viewing and comparing a range of magnificent/symbolic bridges around the world, and their surrounding environments from different angles.
View in Google Earth
Visualize Earth
Since the early 1970’s, we have been collecting imagery of the entire world, and learning in greater detail than ever before how our world is changing.
Classroom activity
Wonders of the Ancient and Modern World
From Stonehenge to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, take your classroom to locations of great historical significance around the world.
Explore World Wonders
Writing Exercise for 4th and 5th Graders
Have your students study Saroo’s 25 year long journey home and start a discussion about the impact of maps and the features they find on them in their daily lives.
Writing Exercise Guide
Searching for Home
Your Plan, Your Planet
We all want a healthy planet. The small choices we make each day can help us get there. Learn simple tips from Google to leave the earth in better shape.
Small changes can have Big impact.
Quick Activity
250 Miles to Freedom
In 1849, Henry Box Brown escaped slavery in the American South enclosed in a wooden box. Encyclopedia Virginia mapped his perilous journey with original artwork and quotes.
Travel from the South to North
Supplemental Resources
Get Started
Next Level
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