Google Maps is a fun site to explore. But after you look at your house, the Navy ships in San Diego Bay, and some great views of the Rockies, how do you use it with students.
Tim Lauer shared two tools for use with Google Maps that I hadn't seen before. A pedometer which can measure distance on Google Maps and Areometer. which can measure area. Pedometer that measures distance.
Those give us some tools that we can use to study estimation. For example, which is further from Detroit, Portage, Michigan or Washington DC? You may be surprised to know that Portage, MI is further away than Washington DC. Students could estimate how far they walk or ride the bus to school and then measure the distance. They can even create a web link to their measurement. My Washington DC Measurement. There is even more you can count calories. (I assume this is if you walked the route.) You put in your weight and measure the distance and it give you the calories used.
Areometer measures area. I used it to measure the area Belle Isle a large urban park in the Detroit River. Here are my results: 3.672e+6 m² / 367.2 hectares / 3.672 km² / 3.953e+7 ft² / 907.5 acres / 1.418 mile² . A little confusing at first, but I bet your students could figure out that the park covers 907.5. Also, their results would very. That would be a good point for discussion. Even though we all used the same tool why did we get different results?
So if your in Michigan or come to visit Michigan you can follow one of my favorite bike routes. Round trip according to Google is 32 miles. That is very close to what my bike measures. I took you down the bicycle paths that aren't shown on the map.
If you come up with an educucation use for these tools please let me know.
Measure away,
Jim