Using the Measurement Tool in Google Maps

I was inspired by this blog post from Richard Byrne!  While I’ve been walking at the track or the park (where there are mile markers along the route), I was interested in what a mile loop would look like in my neighborhood.  Enter Google Maps and the measurement tool (it is all explained in a brief video in the post). Richard also mentioned Tom Barrett’s Math Map blog (it has several interesting projects).

Spreadsheet data to a map!

(Click here for see an interactive view)

On his site Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Bryne recently shared how

to import spreadsheet data to a map. I watched his video and then created my

own.  This one shows the locations where I’ve lived.

Think how you could use this in a novel or historical event.  And it is very easy to do.

Here’s Richard’s video:

Trivia and Geography- Perfect Together

While listening to a webinar this afternoon, Eric Curts demonstrated Smarty Pins- it’s a combination of Google Maps with a wide variety of trivia questions.  You start with 1000 miles- and you lose miles for errors in your pin drops (if you are really close- you get bonus points).  This might be an interesting activity in geography classes- and who knows- maybe your students will be motivated to write their own questions? Here’s the blog post describing the product (along with several other Google tools).