NMSU RETA Brown Bag Byte

NMSU RETA Brown Bag Byte: Google Educators: Goggle Earth April 8, 2008 [email protected]

GeoGreeting (How Geeks Show They Care)

New spelling and vocabulary lessons http://www.geogreeting.com/

______Technical Stuff

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL Welcome to Google Earth! Once you download and install Google Earth, your computer becomes a window to anywhere, allowing you to view high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery, photos, elevation terrain, road and street labels, business listings, and more

For information about installing Google Earth, visit the Google Earth Help Center.

Google Earth puts a planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information right on your desktop. You can view exotic locales like Maui and Paris as well as points of interest such as local restaurants, hospitals, and schools. You and your students can combine the power of Google Earth with your own pictures and web sites.. Google Earth will help you launch discussion about geography, history, cartography, other cultures, literature, geology and the environmental sciences.

Google Earth *PRO* is FREE for Educators! Try these instructions and let us know if it works. http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=783 ______Five Cool, Easy Things You Can Do in Google Earth Want to jump in and start having fun with Google Earth? Try any of the the following: 1. View an image of your home, school or any place on Earth - Click Fly To. Enter the location in the input box and click the Search button. In the search results (Places panel), double click the location. Google Earth flies you to this location. Search button 2. Go on a tour of the world - In the Places panel, check the Sightseeing folder and click the Play Tour button:

3. Get driving directions from one place to another and fly (follow) the route - See Getting Directions and Touring the Route. 4. View other cool locations and features created by other Google Earth users - In the Layers panel, check Community Showcase. Interesting placemarks and other features appear in the 3D viewer. Double click these points of interest to view and explore. See Using Points of Interest (POIs) for more information. 5. View 3D terrain of a place - This is more fun with hilly or mountainous terrain, such as the Grand Canyon. Go to a location (see number 1). When the view shows the location, use the tilt slider to tilt the terrain. See Using the Navigational Controls and Tilting and Viewing Hilly Terrain for more information. Tilt slider View samples of other things you can see and do in Google Earth. ______More Technical Stuff Getting to Know Google Earth

1. Search panel - Use this to find places and directions and manage search results. Google Earth EC may display additional tabs here. 2. Overview map - Use this for an additional perspective of the Earth. 3. Hide/Show sidebar - Click this to conceal or the display the side bar (Search, Places and Layers panels). 4. Placemark - Click this to add a placemark for a location. 5. Polygon - Click this to add a polygon. 6. Path - Click this to add a path (line or lines). 7. Image Overlay - Click this to add an image overlay on the Earth. 8. Measure - Click this to measure a distance or area size. 9. Email - Click this to email a view or image. 10. Print - Click this to print the current view of the Earth. 11. Show in Google Maps - Click this to show the current view in Google Maps in your web browser. 12. Sky - Click this to view stars, constellations, galaxies, planets and the Earth's moon. 13. Navigation controls - Use these to tilt, zoom and move around your viewpoint (see below). 14. Layers panel - Use this to display points of interest. 15. Places panel - Use this to locate, save, organize and revisit placemarks. 16. Add Content - Click this to import exciting content from the KML Gallery 17. 3D Viewer - View the globe and its terrain in this window. 18. Status bar - View coordinate, elevation and imagery streaming status here. ______Google Earth Cross Curricular Resources Cindy Lane's Online Resources http://googleearthgoods.pbwiki.com/Online+Resources

Take a Lit Trip with Google Educator http://web.mac.com/jburg/GoogleLit/Home.html

Google Earth User Guide http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/

Sky - View heavenly objects, including stars, constellations, galaxies, planets and the Earth's moon

Cindy Lane's Resources on Earth Sky http://googleearthgoods.pbwiki.com/Google+Earth+Sky

______Even More Technical Stuff: What is a KML?

Google Earth is a geographic browser -- a powerful tool for viewing, creating and sharing interactive files containing highly visual location-specific information. We call these files KMLs (for Keyhole Markup Language): what HTML is to regular Internet browsers, KML is to geographic browsers. You can open KML files in both Google Earth and Google Maps, as well as in many other geographic browsers. This KML Gallery contains some interesting examples of KMLs that organizations, communities, and users just like you have created using both Google Earth and the "Create a map" feature in Google Maps. Check back here each week for new content, add the KML Gallery Gadget to your iGoogle page, or find even more things to explore in the Google Earth Community. You can also submit your own KML to be considered for inclusion in the Gallery. And .kmz files are really easy to build if you want to make your own collection of places to zoom into. Here's a tutorial on kml, http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html, a kmz is just a zip file containing a kml and whatever else you want.

NASA FILES http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ is always building kmz files to go with their pictures.

So, this image page http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3? img_id=17972 shows the Nicholson crater in Canada and has this http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/nicholson_l7_2000188.kmz .kmz file associated with it which overlays the selected image in Google Earth. Once the .kmz has downloaded into Google Earth, positioned itself over the Nicholson Crater, and displayed the NASA image, you can open the Places menu and flip the image on and off.

The index for the Image of the Day is at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images_index.php3, there are .kmz files for the Nicholson Crater, the Rabaul Volcano, the Serra da Cangalha Crater, the Chorabari Glacier, and the Ries Crater on the first two index pages. Oh the places we can go:

Tutorial on kml, http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_tut.html, This image page http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17972 shows the Nicholson crater in Canada and has this http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/nicholson_l7_2000188.kmz .kmz file associated with it which overlays the selected image in Google Earth

The index for the Image of the Day is at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images_index.php3,