Make a Touchdown with Google Earth!

This is an activity that you can take a variety of directions while incorporating football and Google Earth. Here are some of the possibilities:

1. Students locate and then create a placemark for each city that houses an NFL team. Within their placemark they can include the following elements: link to the team's home page, link to the stadium, image of the stadium, image of the team's helmet, etc. (Be sure to check out the "New to Earth & Maps" link below for help with completing this.)
2. Once they have located the NFL cities, they can use the tools within Google Earth to calculate the distance between various cities.
3. Use the activity described in #2 above, but have the students plan a trip. Within Google Earth, students can also find food and lodging along the way. Ask them to keep a spreadsheet of their expenses as they make their journey. Make it a class competition to see who can spend the least amount of money.
4. Students find their hometown along with the city which is hosting this year's Super Bowl. Using various resources available on the Internet, as well as within Google Earth, students plan a virtual trip to the Super Bowl. They can calculate everything from gas, airfare, food, tickets to the game, hotel, and extra activities. (You might want to have certain groups of students plan on driving to the game and others flying. This would allow them to compare the price.)

Once your students have completed their work, allow them to share their KMZ files with others. Here is a tutorial of how to do this.

Google Earth is free software. Visit Google Earth to start your free download.

Here are some resources to help you get started with Google Earth: New to Earth & Maps - Google Earth Tutorials
Created by :  The Teacher's Corner

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