Monday, November 29, 2010

Personal Project Proposal

For my personal project I would like to use the technology of google earth. I have heard how cool of a tool it can be but have never actually used it myself. Standard 1 for the first half of US history is to understand how geography helped in shaping US history. A project I think that would help students learn how geography influenced the creation of the United States would be to use google earth to locate several colonies and look at their geography and how it influenced that colonies development. For example first we could look at the islands in the Caribbean which were among the first settled. By using google earth students could see how the tropical weather, easy coastal access, small indigenous population etc led to the possibility of opening sugar plantations. Further north we can then look at North American colonies. Viewing the more temperate climate here it became necessary that colonizers choose a new cash crop such as tobacco. Further north still with cold weather the settlers had to rely on pelts since they could not produce cash crops. These are just a few quick example of how history was affected by geography. With the use of google earth I can show the students a few of these initial colonies and then after they have identified what geographic features led to different types of colonies I can have a game in which I choose random places and based on the geography they see on google earth they will have to determine what type of colony they would build there. I think this standard is important because so much of history has been determined by geography. In one popular book guns, germs, and steel the author explains that geography was the key determinant in which nation would rise to power and dominate all others. Similarly geography could make or break a settlement in early times. It took a smart captain to survey what resources he had and then determine what type of settlement he would develop and this is something google earth can help teach the students.

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