976 geography-us-world results | sort by:

Place Spotting - Martin Fussen
Grades
2 to 12Once students or class find the map location, they can choose to try other maps or send a map "quiz" to others. The real power of Place Spotting is that students, teachers, and whole-class groups can also create their Own Place Spotting "quizzes" with accompanying hints using the "Create" page. Here is a sample made by the TeachersFirst review team. This site also includes a blog and search option (i.e. to find maps in specific languages).
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): landforms (49), latitude (15), longitude (15), maps (298)
In the Classroom
Click Create to create your own place spotting "quiz" for others to solve. The simple steps have numbered directions. Be sure to enter the security "code" and click "Store" for your quiz to be saved. Note that you may decide whether to make it "private" (invisible to others except by invitation). Share the quiz you create by copy/pasting the URL that shows after you click "store." You can always find it again using the search tool, but knowing the URL allows you to give it to others as a link. You might want to "collect" your class Place Spotting links in a Word document (for safe keeping) or on a class wiki.The only safety concerns are if kids write questions or use places that might lure people to their school or identify themselves (their own house, for example). Check the box to make the quiz private if it is so revealing that you want to keep it only for those you know (GET THE URL and be sure the teacher keeps the list. Private ones cannot be found using the search!). Kids can use them to quiz each other if the teacher/kids shared the group of "private" ones as links on a teacher web page, class wiki, or in a word document (clickable).
Use this site when studying the concept of satellite imagery and map skills. Contrast this site's technology with that of a hand held GPS device. Discuss the map skills needed to use it, including the comparison of the ZOOM tool with a map scale. This is a great activity for ESL and ELL or weaker readers since there is little language involved! Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector for a daily "map challenge" or as an anticipatory set/activator at the start of any place-related lesson. Choose places as a class and create your own maps, or have students work in cooperative learning groups to create their own maps about places in their community, landmarks of local history, or cultural sites of countries they study in world languages (be sure to mark private, if they are maps that reveal too much information). Classes could build a community treasure hunt of local history or a landform "find-it" on their wiki, simply by including the URLs -- even add digital pictures of the actual location with each "quiz." You will want to us the areas with higher-resolution images for landform study! Older students can put links or embed the quiz on their blogs or wikis, too. Literature lessons could include Placespotting quizzes for major sites in the stories (assuming they are real) or important places in the author's life. You may want to list this site on your class website; families could map out vacation spots, countries of ancestry, and more.
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Flags of the World - fotw.net
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Social studies teachers, definitely save this site in your favorites for your state and country reports. Use the information provided for research projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gateway to the Summer Games - EdGate
Grades
2 to 8In the Classroom
Use this information to enhance your Olympic unit. The lesson plans and activities require very little preparation. Challenge your students to research the various countries that have hosted the Olympics in the past and create multimedia presentations to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Safe Drinking Water - National Academy of Sciences
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): environment (324), natural resources (58), resources (107), water (133)
In the Classroom
Have students look at areas of this site and bring information to a small group or round table discussion of issues. Students can then research areas of the world affected by these issues as well as affected areas in the United States. Use issues as a debate using resources shown on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector. Have students write a blog post about issues that require comments from other class members.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Map Collections Home Page - Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): battles (20), environment (324), maps (298), transportation (43)
In the Classroom
Teachers with interactive whiteboards or projectors will find these maps a natural companion to lessons involving history, geography, and cultural changes. Sometimes seeing a map drawn at the same time as the event under discussion can lend a whole new understanding of the culture of the people being studied. It's far more dramatic to imagine sailing into the unknown on a voyage of discovery while you look at the only maps available to those aboard.Be sure to have students use the whiteboard tools to draw in their own "corrections" or annotations showing the movement of people or strategies used in battles. Since thee resources are in the public domain, you are allowed to copy them into your whiteboard software and keep the student annotations atop the maps, as well. The maps also make good visuals for "mock" blog entries by historical figures!
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Google Sky - Google
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
No matter what subject you teach, bring the wonder of the night sky to your students. Google Sky provides a look at millions of stars and galaxies in the universe which can be a springboard to many activities in your class using art, geography, math, and writing. Use Google Sky as a complement to a planetarium field trip by showing the solar system in your classroom. Use Google Sky to track the life of a star from birth to death, begin discussions and multimedia presentations of mythological orientations of names, and histories or trajectories of planets. Elementary teachers will enjoy being able to share the night skay to accompany or inspire writing poems and stories aout the stars. Find great resources from Google here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Geography for Kids - kidsknowitnetwork
Grades
4 to 10This site includes some minor advertisements. This site requires Flash. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): atmosphere (31), earth (225)
In the Classroom
Save this site as a favorite on your classroom computers. Share the site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use some of the topics as introduction activities to a new unit in geography class. If you are teaching latitude and longitude skills, be sure to check out the interactive Geography Games link. Provide this link on your class website, so students can practice their geography skills at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kid's Past - kidsknowitnetwork
Grades
4 to 9tag(s): famous people (23), greek (41), greeks (33), renaissance (31), romans (35)
In the Classroom
Save this site in your favorites and use it as a jumping off point for research or lessons on the various topics offered at this site. If you have a history buff in your class, share this site with him/her as a place to spark an individual project, even in world language classes where history and culture are part of the curriculum.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Behind the News - ABC News Australia
Grades
6 to 12Be aware, although most of this site is free, there are a few items (for example, CDs) that are for a fee. This site opens slowly and requires a FAST Internet connection. This site requires Flash and Windows Media Viewer. Get them from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
tag(s): australia (37), news (262), point of view (10)
In the Classroom
Use this site as a way to teach point of view and bias in news reporting. Have students compare the Australian broadcast on topics that are also covered by U.S. media. How do the presentations of the main points differ? Have your students rewrite an American news story from what they think the Australian point of view might be. Use this site when teaching current events or world cultures, particularly Oceania. If you have technically-capable students, have them create annotated, side-by side comparisons using multimedia/video software and clips from these and American broadcasts (with appropriate citations, of course).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Connect The States - PBS Kids GO!
Grades
K to 3In the Classroom
Use this website as a learning center on a cluster of computers or on individual computers in the lab or classroom. With younger students you may want to introduce this activity using an interactive whiteboard or projector. This site would work well in any class learning about the states that comprise the United States (regular education, ESL, ELL, or others). Create a class game about your home state (or country, if not from the USA). Have students research and create "game cards" about the state flag, shape of the state, state animal, and other "stately" information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Explore Mars - National Geographic
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): coordinates (30), mars (40), space (221)
In the Classroom
This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Use this website to teach students map skills and how to read coordinates. Use this site to integrate math, science, and geography lessons. Have students create grids on top of other simple maps on your interactive whiteboard or paper after they finish this activity.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Visual Geography - Boris Kester and Nana Bj?rnlund
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): climate (95), continents (51), countries (81)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a world cultures or geography unit or lesson on an interactive whiteboard or projector. This site offers a visual approach to studying and comparing other countries and interesting research information to use for independent projects. This site is also excellent for enrichment. Include it on your teacher web page for students to access both in and out of class. Use this site to introduce the countries your ESL and ELL students represent. Have your ESL and ELL students guide the interactive picture tour for the class. World language teachers can use this site as part of their cultural studies.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Puzzled States - Scholastic
Grades
2 to 5In the Classroom
If your class is learning about the various states in the USA, check out this user-friendly activity. Have students work independently to put the puzzle pieces onto the map. Or make this a class challenge -- divide your class into two teams and have the teams take turns choosing puzzle pieces to place on the map. Include this on your teacher web site as one of several map-practice options wile students are learning the states.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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LearnCalifornia - California State Archives
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): california (26), primary sources (93), westward expansion (29)
In the Classroom
Use the online lessons to introduce historical topics in whole class activities with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Offline lessons can be used where there is not student access to computers and can be printed and reproduced for classroom use. Students can choose a topic to research, write, and present to the class using the wonderful documentation and photographic collections of the California State Archives.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Nile File - Liverpool Musems.org
Grades
3 to 6tag(s): art history (77), egypt (67)
In the Classroom
This site can be a great introduction to a unit on Egypt for young learners. Put a link to this site on a classroom computer that can be used as an activity center for the Egyptian unit of study. Use an interactive whiteboard or projector to take the entire class on an interactive tour of life on the Nile.As a language arts activity, have students adopt the persona of an ordinary Egyptian and write a week-long journal or blog entries about their daily life. Tie in the visual arts by posing and tracing students' outlines on butcher paper on the floor. Students can strike an Egyptian-style pose that reflects their chosen person or occupation, and then draw in the clothing, headwear, and jewelry. Cut out these life-size images and combine them to create an Egyptian wall of stories. Let students fill in the background with hieroglyphic symbols.
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World History for Us All - San Diego State University
Grades
7 to 12Teachers can present a sweeping historical overview with any of the nine Big Eras in a few class periods or delve into an era in deeper detail with their students. Each of the nine Big Eras of world history, plus the History, Geography, and Time and the Past and Future sections, offers one Panorama Teaching Unit with a PowerPoint Overview presentation. Panorama units address very large-scale developments in world history through landscape teaching units and close-up teaching units.
Besides helping teachers meet state and national standards, this site offers teachers fabulous research-based curricular activities and makes history into a manageable content area for instruction. The site includes a clickable "Curriculum at a Glance" overview feature that takes you to the standards, teaching units, three essential questions, and seven key themes. This site requires Flash and Adobe. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
tag(s): continents (51), evolution (102), industrial revolution (26), migration (58), oceans (165), world war 1 (55), world war 2 (142)
In the Classroom
World History for Us All provides teachers pedagogical support to develop both a curriculum and a mindset to present history in a manner that engages students and elicits their curiosity. Complete units are available as web pages or downloadable PDF documents. The PowerPoint presentations can be viewed online or downloaded into PowerPoint on classroom computers. This informational, user-friendly site is a must for new teachers to help augment their adopted textbook. Consider spending an inservice day with your history department exploring the site together.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Adventure Island - National Geographic
Grades
2 to 5tag(s): map skills (84), symbols (17)
In the Classroom
This activity would work well as a cooperative learning activity or on individual computers.. If individual computers aren't available, this site would also be ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector.Have students create their own map symbols and map key as they try their own hand at mapping. ESL and ELL students, as well as the general student body, will benefit from creating their own set of oral directions to read and have other students respond to.
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See GIS in Action - National Geographic
Grades
2 to 7In the Classroom
This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops as you study about habitats. Assign a group of children to each featured animal, and use this site as the starting point for a research project. Have students create similar posters, PowerPoint slides, or wiki page on other animals. If individual computers aren't available, this site would work well on an interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Find the Sunken Treasure - National Geographic
Grades
2 to 6In the Classroom
Send your students on a virtual treasure hunt! This activity would work well for individual or pairs of students in a lab or on laptops. Students can repeat the game with different results. Use this site to integrate map skills, coordinates in math class, oceanography, and more!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Test Designer - Tribrio, Inc.
Grades
K to 12tag(s): quiz (86), quizzes (105), vocabulary (321)
In the Classroom
Use this website to create personalized quizzes and tests for your students. You could also ask students to design their own tests for each other to review using your teacher log-in or appoint a student "quizmaker" each week for the content your class has covered, making this an assignment that each student does once per semester.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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