A Request...

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Wreck
4th and 5th grade teachers and students at my school, Lewis Elementary, are working to raise funds to take part in an environmental education science camp next spring. The camp (sponsored by OMSI) provides our 4th and 5th grade students with a high quality off site overnight experience on the Oregon coast. They are working to raise funds in a number of ways, and with the help of a parent have created a page on myhometownhelper.com to highlight their project. Interested individuals are encouraged to visit the site, learn about the project, and leave comments regarding their request. If you have some time and would like to help, please visit the page and leave a comment.

http://www.myhometownhelper.com/ViewProject.aspx?tell=2&id=7799

Generating Circular Shapes in Google Earth...

in

I've been looking for a way to generate circles in Google Earth. For example I've been looking for a way to easily share with students some common distances and represent them on the map. Today I found the KML Circle Generator. It is a web tool that allows you to enter latitude and longitude coordinates and designate a radius distance and create a KML file that you can download and display in Google Earth. In my example the two circles are centered on the school the yellow line represents a distance a half mile from the school and the orange circle represents a distance of a mile from the school. The yellow place-marks represent where students live. Displaying information in this way could lead to some interesting discussions and problem solving. For example, if all the students who lived within a half mile of the school walked or rode their bikes to school a certain number of days a week how much gas could be saved...

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Building a Community with Sketch-Up and Google Earth...

in

117 299513123 455C37452A 101 299506831 802Eb01E8DTony Jamesbarry, the music and technology teacher at Lewis Elementary, has been working with his 4th and 5th grade students learning Google Sketch-Up. They are currently creating houses, learning how to wrap textures, place objects and manipulate the environment within in Sketch-Up. This is leading up to a planned community building activity, both figuratively and literally. Sketch-Up can grab a specific location from Google Earth and using that as a guide, students will be able to build their houses on a specific lot. Tony has been searching Google Earth looking for housing developments that are partially completed.

200611181125For example he recently found a location in Google Earth that had streets and cul-de-sacs laid, but construction had not yet started. He used the path tools within Google Earth to create lots. After the students become a bit more familiar with Sketch-Up, Tony will assign them specific lots in the housing development (see example images below...) with the idea that each student will build a home on a lot. Part of the process will involve discussion of zoning and building codes. The students will decide on rules and regulations for their community. I'm looking forward to watching the process develop.

We have recently installed Wordpress Multi-User and plan to give each of the students a blog to write daily reflections on their work. More about this later...

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Click to call in Google Maps

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Screenshot 02-30Google has a new feature called Click to call. When using Google Maps to find businesses and other locations, click the call link next to the phone number. Then enter your own number and then click the "Connect for Free" button. Google will dial your number, the caller ID on your phone will indicate the number you are dialing is calling. Once you answer you hear a voice that says, connecting, and then the phone rings at the location you are calling. It currently works in the U.S. and there are no local or long distance charges. Of course if you use your cell phone, your airtime minutes are charged as they would be for any phone call.

If for nothing else this is cool because it will save my school a few bucks on long distance...

by way of the... GoogleBlog

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Chipin: Fundraising Widget for Your Web Site

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I've been following Beth Kanter's posts about Chipin, a fundraising web widget that allows you to collect money for a particular event or cause from your web site. For example I set up the Chipin widget below to help our 4th and 5th grade students raise money for their science camp trip that will take place next spring. I have embedded the widget on the sidebar of this weblog and also on the sidebar of the Lewis Elementary page.

The Chipin FAQ page has answers to questions dealing with security, privacy and such. They have a nice interface for creating custom widgets in various sizes and color schemes. Their admin tools allow me to track contributors and easily generate a list for thank you messages and such.

Each year at Lewis, our students and teachers work very hard to raise the funds for these camp experiences and we hope that this service will help us make it easy for family and friends to contribute to this effort. If you feel inclined to help our students, please consider making a contribution to our camp fund.

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Google Earth Adds Additional Educational Content

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200611131033Last week Google added quite a bit of new featured content to their Google Earth application. This includes historical maps from the Rumsey Maps Archive, two layers that deal with Africa, and imagery from the European Space Agency. Also the UNEP Atlas of our Changing Environment is a fantastic tool for exploring how human activity impacts the Earth.

200611131039By the way, the latest version of Google Earth now allows the adding of image layers. In the example below a map of Portland from 1897 is overlaid on the map. By using the opacity tool one can easily compare the information on the map to the present day information. Jason Kottke did the same with a historical map from 1836 and combined it with the 3D buildings view to produce an interesting image of Manhattan.

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