Explore our changing world with Google Earth, Maps, and SketchUp
Earth Day has been celebrated every year since 1970, but never before have
we had such a rich variety of educational tools at our fingertips. Our
engineers work hard to design tools that help you bring the importance of
environmental awareness to life for your students. Here are a few of our
favorite environmentally-oriented resources to help you plan your lessons.
Find out more about Google's Earth Day activities at www.google.com/earthday08!
 Global Temperature Trends
As part of the
Educational Global Climate Modeling project, Columbia University programmers
have developed this global temperature trends visualization using Google
Earth. Now students can explore data on temperature changes in cities near
and far.
Environmental Hot Spots
Whether your classroom is in Santiago or San Antonio, you and your students can tour the Arctic's shrinking ice cap using the National Resources Defense Council's Environmental Hot Spots.
 Google Carbon Footprint Project
In the UK, the Google Carbon Footprint Project has helped students understand their own environmental impact and brainstorm everyday actions that can reduce it. These new climate change lesson plans
challenge students to evaluate the problem locally and globally using
information from Google Maps, Earth, Search and Images.
 Download lesson plan [.pdf]
Download activity sheet [.pdf]
 Tour America's Great Green Buildings
If architecture is your students' forte, you might want to point them to this tour of America's great green buildings.
Your class won't need to wait for new designs from seasoned architects, however--now they can model eco-friendly buildings on their own using Google SketchUp!
Don't have Google Earth? Download it here.
Looking for more advanced content? Be sure to check out the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Case Study. When you're ready to create your own files, Google Earth Outreach's tutorials offer a wealth of helpful hints.
Stay tuned for more resources coming soon!
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