Google Earth Plan

2 Grade core for Social Studies:
Standard 2
Students will develop a sense of self in relation to families and community.
Objective 2
Examine important aspects of the community and culture that strengthen relationships.

1. Compare rural, suburban, and urban communities.

I chose to do a virtual tour on this subject because it interests me to see all the differences there are between people and locations within the same area. I will be looking at three locations in Utah, to show that they are all fairly different and contain different kinds of people. Then the fourth location will be of my home in Southern California, and it will be up to the students what kind of location it is.

For each area, the students will choose a house they see, and tell how they know that it is in a rural, urban, or suburban local.

I have put the outline of my lesson activities on the table below, but will expand them and make them more specific when it is time to create the tour.

Google Earth is a good tool for this assignment because it shows the students where they are relitive to to the rest of the world, and helps them see that even in Utah, there is a wide range of places to live and people to know. It gives them a better glimps at the reality of their location, rather than looking at a globe or a regular map.

Location:	Activity Description:	Google Earth Content:
Salt Lake City	Look at how many buildings there are, the size of them, and what they might be used for.	Population and ethnicity layers of SLC. Also, the 3D versions of the buildings.
Provo	How does this differ from SLC?	Look at pictures of actual places, such as BYU.
Payson	Are there more fields or houses? How is this different from the previous locations? What do the people in payson likely do?	Locate different kinds of landmarks, like big buildings, houses, fields, etc. from the pictures
My home (2 Dale Lane Redlands CA	What kind of a town do I live in: rural, suburban, or urban? How can you tell?	population layer.