Feed the World while your students learn with Free Rice

Free Rice is a simple test site for teachers and students that has an ethical bonus built into it.  For every question students answer correctly Freerice will donate 10 grains of rice to third world nations.  There are a range of useful tests for all ages and subject areas and would be a great thing for your students and those in need around the world.  Access FreeRice here.

Test your students geography knowledge with this online quiz tool

The world quiz is a very simple graphical quiz that students of nearly any age will understand with ease.  It doesn't give back a great deal of information to inform you where you went right or wrong, but if you simply want your students to know where countries are in the world then this will do the trick.

You can select specific regions and different aspects of geography to suit your needs.  Access the world quiz here.

Hundreds of Free Worksheets with Millions of Combinations

Worksheets are often seen as the epitome of 'lazy' teaching and nearly all teachers I know use themvery rarely nowadays.  But the fact is that sometimes the old worksheet is is a great learning tool and worksheetworks.com has an absolute 'sheet load' of worksheets that you can generate to meet the specific needs of your students. 

English, Maths and puzzles are the core content of worksheetworks.com but there are plenty of options to make a worksheet to meet your needs due to the ever increasing library of content on the site. 

All in all - worksheetworks.com should be in the back of every teachers memory  next time you need a work sheet as this allows for far more personalised learning opportunities than simply photocopying a generic sheet from a resource book.

Oh of course it is all free too.  Check it out here.

Put real world objects into perspective with BBC Dimensions

How big really is an excellent resource for geography and math teachers who want to put objects from around the world into perspective that students will understand.  For instance how big was the recent Gulf oil spill in comparison to the Great Barrier Reef?

The BBC Dimensions site aims to bring home the human scale of events and places in history. The D-Day landing beaches measured from London to Norfolk in the UK. How far would the Titanic stretch down your street?

Dimensions simply juxtaposes the size of historical events with your home and neighbourhood, overlaying important places, events and things on a satellite view of where you live. Certain "Dimensions" can be transformed into short walks, so you can get a physical appreciation of the distances involved.

Below is an image of the Oil Spill over part of Great Britain.  Access Dimensions here

Mapquest - All your geography Basics at your fingertips.

Mapquest is a great resource if you want to find out simple and quick information about countries from around the world.  Dead easy to navigate and not overrun with useless info.  If you are a Geography expert you may feel a little under whelmed by it though.  Check it out here.

Simple Lesson on Estimation & Measurement using Google Earth

I did this with my kids yesterday as part of our Geography and maths unit that was a real hit  and had plenty of learning opportunities to offer. 

1:  The lesson involves measuring distances between two cities or locations such as Sydney and Melbourne and initially estimating that distance with your students.  Record some of these up on the board and discuss which ones are realistic, unrealistic and why.

2:  Next you need to introduce two terms of geographic measurement. 

• "As the Crow Flies"  This is the most direct path available roads, mountains and objects do not obstruct the crow therefore it can take the absolute shortest route.
• "Street Directions" This is the route obviously driven by car or whatever mode of transport you choose.  Explain to students that these are the most realistic measurement for us and why?

3:  Measure the street distance using the directions tab in Google Earth  and it will give you a distance such as 1245 Kilometres.  Following this you need to get the kids to estimate the distance it would be "as the crow flies"

4:  Measure the "As the crow flies distance" using the ruler option under Google Earth Tools.  Finally get your students to subtract the direct route from the Street directions and find out how much distance the crow has saved.

That is basically it, you have plenty of lesson discussion and further geography and maths questioning options that I am sure you will flesh out with your kids.  Remember to check out my Ultimate guide to Google Earth for more lesson Ideas using Google Earth look forward to hearing your feedback.

Draw and Annotate Google Maps: Scribblemaps

I am doing Geography with my kids at the moment and obviously we use Google Maps quite regularly.  I recently discovered ScribbleMaps and now use this as my default Google Maps application as it offers everything that Google Maps does but has a handy little tool kit overlay that allows me to scribble, annotate, type or whatever I would like to do over the top.  That is as simple and as complicated as ScribbleMaps is but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Atlapedia - A nice alternative to Google Maps

Google Earth and Maps are brilliant classroom tools and you can find some great ideas for using them in the classroom here but Atlapedia is a nice alternative for geography students who wish to view traditional maps and explore countries around the world.

Atlapedia Online is a great reference for students to use by themselves, or educators to use in the classroom. It contains full color physical maps, political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world.

Check it out here.