Geography – Page 5 – iLearn Technology

Win a month subscription to Wiglington and Wenks contest!

February 9, 2010February 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely9 Comments5991 views

What it is: Wiglington and Wenks is a rich virtual world for kids that I wrote about a few weeks ago here. This virtual world brings together literature, history, and geography into one amazing learning experience for kids. Wiglington and Wenks is a place for students to explore, think, discover, and grow. I can’t say enough about this virtual world as a learning space, I wish every textbook company on the planet would move toward this type of model of presenting content and learning! While Wiglington and Wenks is free for everyone, they do offer memberships that give students access to extra features, special areas, and extra privileges. Wiglington and Wenks has provided 10 one month memberships for iLearn Technology readers! If you would like a free membership for your class or as a give-away to one of your students or children please leave a comment below. In your comment, tell us your favorite feature of Wiglington and Wenks. I will choose 10 winners randomly and send an email with instructions for redeeming your free membership.

How to integrate Wiglington and Wenks into the classroom: Wiglington and Wenks is based on a story book. Read these stories with your students or include them in your classroom library for reading. In this virtual world, students have the opportunity to travel to and explore real places. Students can learn about the Amazon, Madagascar, Singapore, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Pyramid, Chchen Itza, the Bermuda Triangle, the Great Wall of China, Big Ben, and more. As students travel through the worlds, they are presented with various quests and meet with famous historical figures. Right now students can interact with Gandhi, Charles Darwin, Genghis Khan, Beethoven, Buffalo Bill, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Neptune, and Chief Joseph. Many new characters are being released including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Cleopatra, Issac Newton John, Albert Einstein, Pocahontas, and Wilber and Orville Wright. Send your students on quests to learn more about each of these characters and places. Find more ideas for using Wiglington and Wenks in your classroom on my original post here.

Tips: Make sure that you use a valid email address in your comment so that I can contact you!

Leave a comment and share how you are using Wiglington and Wenks in your classroom.

Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010

January 15, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments2848 views

What it is: The Winter Olympics are just around the corner and Vancouver has created a website to track all things Olympics. Vancouver 2010 has excellent information and links for your students to explore. On the website, students can learn about each of the winter games sports, the medals, the athletes involved, current news relating to the Olympics, photos, videos, and more. My favorite features is in More 2010 information. Here you will find the 2010 Olympic torch relay route. The torch is tracked on an interactive map. Students can follow its journey from October 30 to February 12.

How to integrate Olympic Winter Games Vancouver 2010 into the classroom: Vancouver 2010 is a well made site where your students can learn more about the winter Olympics that will be taking place in February. There are some great little videos that will teach students about each event, photos of the Olympic events, historical medals of the different countries, schedules of events, and much more. The Olympic games is a fun time for each country, students can learn more about geography, other cultures, the Olympic games, and the history of the Olympics. Track the torch as it makes its way to the games each day. Talk about the places it has been and about this history of the torch. Create a Google Earth Map where your students can keep track of the medals won by different countries throughout the games. Assign groups of students to learn about the different competitions in the winter Olympics. Each group can be assigned to learn more about the competition using the Vancouver 2010 website and use the photographs and pictures to help them present the event to the class.

Tips: The Olympic games is a great time of year to teach about teamwork, doing your best, and supporting your country. Great tie ins for character education! Check out the education programs (More information for 2010) there are great lesson plans and ideas.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Vancouver 2010 in your classroom.

Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World

January 13, 2010February 25, 2010Kelly Tenkely20 Comments11819 views

What it is: I absolutely love when I learn about a new site, especially those that I immediately know will be a winner with students. You know the sites that have incredible graphics, are easy to use, and involve kids in the story (instead of just drill and practice). Wiglington & Wenks is one such site. One of the creators of the site @aldricchang alerted me to the new site today via Twitter.

Students are dropped into the middle of a story where they become world travelers to places around the real-world, meeting historical characters, playing brain games, building culture inspired houses, exploring secret locations, and solving ancient mysteries. There are 100 educational real-world and imaginary places for students to visit from the past, present, and the future. Wiglington and Wenks was originally a children story book series written by Johan Bittleston. It has exploded into an online world where students can learn and explore.

Wiglington and Wenks is so much more than your standard virtual world, it has a rich story line with well developed characters, plot, mystery, and quests. Students are dropped into the story and invited to participate, learning through exploration, problem solving, and critical thinking. The world highlights famous real-world landmarks, historical figures, inventions, culture, nature, and wildlife. Students are motivated to learn more about each as they complete a series of quests.

The story behind the virtual world is about two water rats from England, Wiglington and Wenks, who are in search of a legacy left by Wiglington’s great explorer ancestor. A series of magic maps guide them as they travel through time and space. Through a series of events, a time portal was accidentally created that transported famous figures from the past to the future. All of the historical figures seem to have forgotten who they are. Students embark on a quest to help Wilington and Wenks find the famous missing characters and recover their lost memories.

Wilglington and Wenks are the main characters of the story. They are the heroes. There are a host of other characters that further enchant students as they solve the mysteries of this virtual world.

Carto is the map creator who created the magic maps that keep track of geography, cultural evolution, and climate change over time. Fragments of the map piece together to form a complete real-world map.

Sir Ordy Nace is the curator of the maps at the British Museum.

Filo rat is the head of the Traveling Academy in the town. He is an inventor, code breaker, and skilled strategist- a genius in every way. He loves a challenging game of sudoku or master mind.

Scuttle Butt is a search engine. Ask him a question and he provides a useful list with the most relevant information at the top. He is Filo Rat’s assistant. (This is an awesome way for students to familiarize themselves for using search engines to solve problems!)

Chacophonous is a crab who also happens to be a conductor. He is reportedly connected by an ancestor to Beethoven. He introduces students to classical music.

Walpole the whale makes cross-ocean transportation possible. He has a terrible sense of direction so students have to give him directions and help guide him.

Every story needs a villain and the Count is the villain of this story. He is known for using his knowledge of the magic maps for the destruction of the environment along with his side kick Warrior Wolf.

Historical figures include Thomas Edison, Alexandar Graham Bell, Cleopatra, Confusious, Copernicus, Damo, Emperor Quin, Galileo Galilei, Issac Newton John, Marco Polo, John Rolfe, Nostra Damus, Pocahontas, Wilber Wright, Orville Wright, Vlad Dracula, and many more.

How to integrate Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World into the classroom: The rich storyline alone makes this site one to bring into your classroom. Students can do character studies, learn about plot, mystery, and suspense. Use this site to teach your students about environmental issues such as global warming, forest preservation, protection of marine life, and endangered animals. This is an immersive learning environment where your students will learn by doing. As students travel the virtual world, they will learn geography, cultural differences, history, and inventions. Students are encouraged to think creatively to solve the issues facing the world today. Wiglington & Wenks would be a great site to introduce to students at the beginning of the year that is used throughout the year for learning. Make it your goal to solve the mysteries of the magic maps before the end of the year. Throughout the year students can visit the virtual world, learn about historical figures, famous inventions, and geography. Hang up a world map in your classroom and keep track of the places that have been visited. Encourage students to create character cards as they learn about new historical figures, and story characters. Each student can have their own account but keep track of progress as a class. Create PSA posters for the classroom as students learn about environmental issues. Explore more about the inventors and inventions that students come across in the virtual world. Have students keep a journal of discoveries (on or offline) as they discover new clues. Have students write newspaper articles about the happenings of the virtual world and it’s characters. This site can be tied into your curriculum for the year in a variety of ways.

I love the way this site encourages discovery of knowledge, teamwork, and critical thinking. This site will have your students excited about learning the whole year through. Fridays would make a great day of discovery each week and give students something to look forward to. Create a single class account and explore Wilington and Wenks as a class each week (or a little each day) using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Give each student the opportunity to be the navigator of the world. The other students can take observation notes in a journal about what they see and learn. If you have classroom computers, cycle your students through the virtual world as a center activity. In this model each student can have an account. If you have access to a 1 to 1 environment (one computer for each child) or a computer lab setting on a regular basis, students can each have their own account and solve the mystery individually. Form small groups where students can discuss their findings and give each other tips and tricks. (Hint: these groups will form whether or not you create them…it is that engaging!)

Wiglington and Wenks is the way that learning should be!

Tips: Read the Wiglington & Wenks books (Amazon link) as a class…the tie into the virtual world will have your students eager to read these books to learn more!

Your students will catch on to the virtual world environment quickly and know more about the characters, games, etc. than you could ever hope to learn. There is a great guide that will clue you into everything the world offers so that you can keep up with your students. Check it out here.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Wiglington & Wenks Virtual World in your classroom.

Track My T

November 19, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments25458 views

What it is: Track My T is a truly impressive website that I learned about from @dianadell on Twitter. Track my T lets students type in the unique lot number on their t-shirt and then go through an amazing interactive journey tracking their t-shirt from its very beginning as a cotton seed on a farm, to every step before they bought it. Students can track their actual t-shirt or choose a random t-shirt to follow. On their journey students will learn about picking cotton, the cotton gin, yarn spinners, textile mills, cut and sew factories, and distribution centers. This is an incredible journey that teaches students the process that goods go through before they end up in the local store. Each stop on the journey includes video, images, and information about what happens during that part of the t-shirt creation process. In addition, students will learn about and encounter historical figures like Eli Whitney. At the end of the journey students can check out their custom T tag, learn more about the screen printing process, and learn how to reduce their carbon footprint.

How to integrate Track My T into the classroom: Track My T is an amazing site. From beginning to end your students will be engaged and enthralled with this website. The ability to track their actual t-shirt is really something! Use this activity as a whole class with an interactive whiteboard, as a center activity in the classroom, or individually in the computer lab setting. As a follow up activity, have students put placemarks on a Google Earth map on the location where their t-shirt/pants/shoes were made. This activity could easily be expanded to the geography classroom (perfect for national geography week which is this week!). Students could do additional research about the country where their t-shirt originated from. To expand the activity even more, have students Tweet about their findings, see if they can get a response from someone that lives in that country.

Tips: Be sure to take a look at the accompanying lesson plan on Track My T. The lesson teaches students all about fair trade.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Track My T in your classroom.

Take a Video Tour of Planet Earth

October 14, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2132 views

What it is: Take a Video Tour of Planet Earth with the combination of Discovery channel “Planet Earth” and Google Earth. Witness animal behaviors, dive into the deepest cave on the planet, and come eye to eye with a 30-ton humpback whale in this interactive tour. Explore the earth through Discovery channel’s Planet Earth series embedded in Google Earth. Just zoom into a location in the Planet Earth tour and view video clips from the popular 11 part series. The tour is free to download and plays directly in Google Earth.

How to integrate Video Tour of Planet Earth into the classroom: Geography lessons come to life in Google Earth. The Video Tour of Planet Earth infuses even more life into your classroom with an up-close look at the incredible animals and vegetation around the world. This tour is an excellent resource for teaching students about habitats, ecosystems, geography, animals, animal kingdoms, and more. Your students will be able to virtually ‘fly’ to locations all over the world and get a real life look at each stop. This is an outstanding resource to view on the big screen with a projector or an interactive whiteboard. Allow your students to take turns acting as tour guide at each stop. Students can preview the video, do some additional research and present their findings as the class visits their stop along the tour. Set up the tour on classroom computers for a fun geography or science center. Use a stop on the video tour as a writing prompt for journaling.

Tips: Google Earth is a free download, if you don’t already have it, this is a MUST have for every classroom.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Take a Video Tour of Planet Earth in your classroom.

Flight Day with Google Earth

October 11, 2009October 11, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2635 views

What it is: Every year the second grade students at CHC participate in Flight Day. Each class ‘flies’ to a different country where they learn about the customs, architecture, and geographical landmarks of the country. This year we spruced up flight day with Google Earth. I created tours in Google Earth so that our students could virtually ‘fly’ from Denver International Airport to their destination (France, Germany, and Mexico). Before landing in the destination country, we toured famous buildings, landmarks, and points of interest in the destination country. Flight day begins with a re-arranging of the classroom. Chairs are arranged in rows to simulate an airplane. Desks surround the chairs and act as the airplane enclosure. Students prepare for flight day by creating suitcases (that looks like the flag of the destination country) and passports for their travel. Students have to go through security before they can board the plane. There bags are searched and they have to take off their shoes and be wanded. We have amazing parents who volunteer to act as the pilots of the plane and stewardesses on the flight. The parents are great sports dressing the part and following a script we have written. The Promethean boards displayed the Google Earth tour that I pre recorded for teachers. Each flight leaves from our airport. The features in Google Earth are incredible, using the 3D buildings option in Google Earth, students could actually see the white peaks of DIA as they waited on the tarmac. The plane picks them up from a terminal and the flight begins. Before flight day I had teachers create an itinerary of places they would like to see before the plane landed. I based all tours on this itinerary. Students flew to destinations in France such as the Eiffel Tower, Arch De Triumph, Notre Dame, Versailles, Saint Chappelle Cathedral, and the Louvre. With the 3D buildings and Google Street view options selected, we were able to see each place in 3D and then see a real 360* panorama view of each stop. During the flight, we provided students with in flight entertainment videos. Our videos came from Discovery Streaming and the links were embedded right in Google Earth. The videos were all related to the final destination country, we found some great videos of kids talking about what school is like in each country. Students were also served an in flight meal. Students traveling to France enjoyed a croissant, baguette with brie cheese, grapes, and sparkling lemonade. Each meal came served in a little box topped with the flag of the destination country and a note that said “Thank you for flying Air France.” When the flight ended, our Google Earth tour finished by landing at the airport of the destination country. Students disembarked the plane and got their passports stamped. Students then pretended to visit the local library and were read a story about the country. The students who ‘traveled’ to Mexico were greeted by Spanish speakers and singers as they exited the plane (our 7th grade Spanish students came down to make the experience more authentic). This was a very neat day for our students and is SO much better than reading about the countries they visited from a social studies text book. Tomorrow students will create crafts of the country and sample some of the local cuisine. They will watch some more clips from Discovery Streaming, learn a few phrases in new languages, and see some more pictures of the places they are visiting. You can view our tour of France here: France (To get the full effect make sure that you have turned on the 3D Buildings, Street view, Borders and Labels, and Terrain under Layers in Google Earth.)

How to create a Google Earth Tour: Google Earth is a truly incredible tool. If you aren’t using Google Earth in your classroom, you should be! It is a free download here: Google Earth 5. To create a tour of your own: Before you begin, come up with an itinerary of places you would like to visit.

1. Open Google Earth (I worked in Google Earth 5) and create a new Folder under “Places” 2. Under the Search type in your first destination. (Ours was DIA, our local airport). You can search by business name, city, or specific address. Google Earth will search for places that match your search criteria and drop place markers on the map. When you find the place that you want to add, zoom in and click on the “add placemark button” (the yellow pushpin in the top menu).

3. When you add a pushpin, the place will show up under your places folder as your first destination. Continue searching and adding placemarks for each of the stops you would like to make on your journey. You can add notes, links, etc. when you create a placemark. Make sure that the view of the feature is exactly the way you would like students to view it when they play the tour. In other words, if you want students to actually see the 3D model of the Eiffel tower, make sure that when you place your placemark you have zoomed into the map and adjusted the screen.

4. Under “Layers” you can select the features you would like to show up on your map. For our flight day I wanted students to be able to see the 3D buildings, Street View, Borders and Labels, and Terrain. You can select as many or few layers as you would like.

5. Finally you will play and record your tour. To play the tour click on the video camera play button which is located directly under the Places panel. This will automatically play your journey. To record your tour, click on the “record” button which is located in the top menu button and looks like a video camera with a red record dot. As I recorded, I would pause the play back of the tour and zoom in and around buildings and feature landmarks. When you press play again, the tour continues.

6. Play the tour for students. When we played the tour for students we paused often so that we could talk about the different architecture and land features that we were seeing. Pausing also gave us the opportunity to “fly” into the street view so that students could see what it would look like to actually stand on the street corner and look around. Amazing is the only word that comes to mind! (As a side note, the Louvre has an incredible 360* tour, be sure to check it out!)

Tips: Google Earth is preset to ‘fly’ quickly between destinations, because we wanted the students to feel like they were actually on a flight, and to get a feel for flying over the ocean to reach a destination I changed the Preferences in Google Earth. I delayed the amount of time that it took to reach the destination and tweaked a few other settings to get the tour to run the way we needed it to. The tours can be saved as a place and even emailed to other team teachers directly from Google Earth.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Google Earth in your classroom.

Story Cove

October 11, 2009October 11, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2346 views

What it is: Story Cove- A World of Stories is an excellent collection of stories from around the world. The folktales come from a variety of cultures and places sharing timeless lessons and universal values. The stories are shared in two ways, as an audio story only, or as a movie. The stories have been collected from countries around the world including: Africa, Asia, Americas, Australia, and Europe. Students can explore the world through the stories told there. Each story is accompanied by a variety of activities including coloring pages, mazes, printable masks, etc. There is a teacher page where you can find lesson plans for each story that extend the story elements to explore the original story with projects and activities that encourage interaction with other students, parents, and teachers. Each story has a lesson for students in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade.

How to integrate Story Cove- A World of Stories into the classroom: Story Cove- A World of Stories is a fun way for students to learn about other cultures and countries through the stories told there. It provides a great tie in between geography, language arts, and social studies. As you are teaching about other countries, use Story Cove as a way for students to understand more about the people who live there. Because the stories have universal values, students will be able to relate them to their own lives. Story Cove can be used with a projector or interactive whiteboard for whole class participation or set up as a story center on classroom computers. These stories are great for building reading strategies like making connections, summarizing, synthesizing, questioning, and evaluating. They are also helpful for language and vocabulary building.

Tips: If you can’t find a place to directly tie in Story Cove in your curriculum, consider introducing a new folktale to students each week of the school year. Use the Story Cove story as a writing prompt for journal writing.

Related Resources: Speakaboos

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Story Cove in your classroom.

Meet Me at the Corner

September 8, 2009Kelly Tenkely4 Comments1513 views

What it is: Meet Me at the Corner is an inventive site that seeks to take students on virtual field trips through videos created by students. The site started with video podcasts of the history and people of New York City. As the site grows through student submissions, people and events of other towns, cities, and nations will be highlighted. Currently there are video podcasts from Colorado, California, North Carolina, Texas, and Maryland. Through the Meet Me at the Corner videos, students can learn about people, jobs, and places around the country and soon around the world. Students can also submit videos from their corner of the world. Meet Me at the Corner also has video book reviews that can motivate students to read books they may not have considered.

How to integrate Meet Me at the Corner into the classroom: Meet Me at the Corner is a great new resource for introducing your students to the wider world. Students can take a virtual field trip to different states through videos, learning about people, their jobs, and where they live. These videos give your students a better understanding of the world they live in. Meet Me at the Corner encourages student video submissions. Consider creating a class video about your city/state/school to submit to Meet Me at the Corner. It would be great for students to get a first hand look at schools and students from around the world.

Tips: Meet Me at the Corner has a contest section with contests that students can take part in. These contests are updated regularly so be sure to check them out.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Meet Me at the Corner in your classroom.

GeoEdu

June 22, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment15676 views

What it is: GeoEdu is a free software download for both Macs and PC’s. The software contains two parts, the first is an atlas with interactive maps and details for each country including the capital, flag, land and water borders, length of the coasts, the population, official languages, internet and country code, currency, international organization membership, and more. The second part of the software is a game offering more than 100,000 geography questions about worldwide geography. The game lets players give an answer or choose to answer with clues or multiple choice. After answering a question, students can view their score and look at detailed data for the territory.

How to integrate GeoEdu into the classroom: I’m not sure why school supply stores still sell the pull down atlas, with all of the amazing atlas and map tools available for free, buying a map seems so last century! GeoEdu is a bright and colorful interactive atlas with great details for each country. This free software is perfect for use with an interactive whiteboard or projector. The game included is a great way to increase student geography knowledge. Play the game as a class during geography or any time you have a few extra minutes. Keep a running score going throughout the year that can be added to easily. GeoEdu is also a great download for classroom and library computers. Use GeoEdu as a geography/atlas center where students can stop by and interact with maps and play the game.

Tips: This site does require a download so be sure to add it to your wish list before the start of school.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using GeoEdu in your classroom.

Geo Greeting

May 14, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2451 views

What it is: Geo Greeting is a fun little site that lets you type in a message and send it to a friend or preview the message in a separate window. When the message is opened it is spelled out one letter at a time through pictures embedded on a map of the world. The pictures are of buildings around the world that are the shape of letters in the alphabet. The effect is really neat! Each picture is accompanied by the name of the location and the name of the building.

How to integrate Geo Greeting into the classroom: Geo Greeting would be a fun way to display a morning message to your students using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Just type in your message and copy the URL into a browser to play the message for students. This site is also a fun place for students to practice their spelling words. They can type in their words and then click on the preview button to watch the word being spelled for them. Geo Greeting is a great way to interest students in geography, type in a message and discuss the places that pop up as a result.

Tips: These greetings can be embedded as an e-card, sent as an email, or just copy and paste the link in a browser.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Geo Greeting in your classroom.