Overcoming Assessment Problems in Google Earth-basedAssignmentsNicholas D Johnson1a) Nicholas P Lang2 and Kelley T Zophy3

ABSTRACTEducational technologies such as Google Earth have the potential to increase student learning and participation in geosci-ence classrooms However little has been written about tying the use of such software with effective assessment To maxi-mize Google Earthrsquos learning potential for students educators need to craft appropriate research-based objectives utilizeengaging student-centered learning techniques and directly assess student learning Several example activities areincluded to suggest how Google Earth-based geoscience lessons can be created and still maintain measurable learning out-comes VC 2011 National Association of Geoscience Teachers [DOI 10540813604822]

INTRODUCTIONThe use of educational technology according to Her-

rington and Kervin (2007) can serve as a departure fromtraditional lecture-based instruction because it ldquonot only[functions] as a means to engage students in meaningfuland immersive learning environments but also to enable[s]students to use and experience powerful cognitive toolsrdquoTechnologyrsquos continual integration into our schools reflectsthe truth of the statement from kindergarten to graduateschool new learning tools are increasingly used every-where from in-class activities to learning assessment (egCauley et al 2010 Lamb and Johnson 2010 Salend 2009)In order to prepare students for the science technology en-gineering and mathematics (STEM) fields teachers in theircorresponding educational disciplines have become leadersin adopting instructional technologies and encouraging sci-entific thought (Marshall 2010)

Similar to other science teachers earth science educa-tors have in their content area a rich source of computerand web-based technologies that aid in geospatial explora-tions including global positioning system (GPS) ArcGISand Google Earth (eg Mannel et al 2007 Sherman-Mor-ris et al 2009) Of these innovations Google Earth may bethe most popular due to its free cost relative ease of useand adaptability It is certainly one of the more discussedgeospatial technologies in geoscience education (eg Lambet al 2008 Sherman-Morris et al 2009) For example theScience Education Resource Center (SERC) lists sevenbroad categories on its website (serccarletonedu) in whichGoogle Earth can be utilized in classrooms

1 to support hands-on inquiry by students in com-puter classrooms

2 as a basis for homework assignments3 for dynamic presentations during class lectures4 for inquiry during class presentations

5 to create imagery and maps for PowerPoint Wordand other presentation tools

6 as a data discovery organization and distributiontool for research projects and

7 to enrich discussion of an issue that arises spontane-ously during an informal classroom discussion

Of these seven categories four (3 4 5 and 7) arerooted in teacher-centered direct instruction (eg lecture)while the remaining three (1 2 and 6) have the mostpotential for student-centered inquiry-based learningwhen using Google Earth Rather than having the teacheras the sole disseminator of information inquiry-basedteaching practices allow students to actively participate ina variety of exercises that challenge them to analyze syn-thesize and evaluate information (Chun 2010)

Student-centered learning offers a variety of benefitsover traditional teacher-directed instruction Perhaps mostimportant this approach to instruction keeps studentsengaged Putting students in the driverrsquos seat of their learn-ing by encouraging such tasks as creating or analyzingrather than listening ldquoenables students to think of them-selves as learnersrdquo (Bryk 2010) Placing the focus on learn-ers also means student-centered strategies are easilytailored to suit individual studentsrsquo learning needs Thispersonalized instruction can radically affect studentsrsquoinvolvement in their own learning by making content morecomprehensible as well as meaningful (Hannafin et al2009) A comparison of teacher-centered and student-cen-tered introductory geology courses by McConnell (2009)found that students participating in the inquiry-basedclasses felt that ldquothe group arrangement took away theimpersonal feeling of a large class provided an opportunityto participate gave students a peer to explain the materialand let them hear the opinions of othersrdquo Those studentsalso performed better on exams were more satisfied withtheir experience and were less likely to drop out than thosein lecture-based classes The inclusion of classroom technol-ogy gives educators a fantastic opportunity to break awayfrom traditional teaching styles and involve their learnersin inquiry-based learning practices (Herrington et al 2007)

Science educationrsquos emphasis on analysis and synthesisof information along with Google Earthrsquos interactivity pro-vides teachers with an excellent opportunity to utilizeactive learning strategies Still many educators at the Kndash12

Received 16 September 2010 accepted 29 October 2010 published online 1August 2011

a)Electronic mail njohnsonmecom

1Graduate Program of Special Education Mercyhurst College 2855 Alex-andra Dr Erie Pennsylvania 16506 USA2Department of Geology Mercyhurst College 501 E 38th St Erie Penn-sylvania 16546 USA3Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Gannon University EriePennsylvania 16541 USA

1089-9995201159(3)997$2300 VC Nat Assoc Geosci Teachers99

JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION 59 99ndash105 (2011)

and collegiate levels seem to limit their student-centeredGoogle Earth activities to worksheets (Table I) Out of fiveGoogle Earth-based lesson plans found through differentonline sources three were limited to worksheet-based activ-ities and assessment With activities such as worksheetswith fixed answers a teacher may easily assess how stu-dents have met whatever objectives the teacher has set forthe lesson activity or project In doing so they may havealso limited studentsrsquo interest and participation by not pro-viding students with an engaging learning environment

Like other instructional strategies technology use hasthe unfortunate potential of being ineffective if not pairedwith clear objectives and appropriate assessments Thismay even occur without the teacherrsquos knowledge Dittmer( 2010) has warned that although technology ldquoengages stu-dents in their own learning and within a technologicalcontext in which students are generally quite comfortablerdquoit may still end up taking ldquoon the worst elements of oldermodels of correspondence coursesrdquo if used incorrectlyEven with the best of intentions assignments rooted inclassroom technology may still end up reflecting theldquowooden top-downhellipteaching modelrdquo which Dittmer(2010) described This is just as true for the Google Earthsoftware as for any other classroom technology To fullyutilize Google Earth educators must be able to couple stu-dent-centered instructional strategies with clearly definedlearning objectives and motivating engaging assessmentsThis article discusses those issues in further depth

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBJECTIVESINSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ANDASSESSMENT

Creating effective objectives and following them upwith quality assessments requires an understanding of

what has become one of the most influential objective-writ-ing tools for Kndash12 (and to an extent collegiate) educators(Booker 2007) In his first Taxonomy of Educational Objec-tives handbook Benjamin Bloom (1956) outlined differentways of thinking about information and how learners canuse those different ways of thinking to their advantage Aseducation researchers have extensively written aboutBloomrsquos Taxonomy (eg Booker 2007 McConnell et al2003 Wineburg and Schneider 2009) we only outline thetaxonomy due to its relevance in creating educationalobjectives and assessments

Bloomrsquos taxonomy consists of six separate levels ofthinking (also known as rdquocognitive domainsrdquo) which rangefrom the least to most cognitively challenging (McConnellet al 2003) The domains are Knowledge (the least cogni-tively demanding) Comprehension Application AnalysisSynthesis and Evaluation (the most cognitively demand-ing) (3 Bloom 1956) Each cognitive domain is also associ-ated with a variety of activities designed to utilize domain-respective skills For example the act of remembering spe-cific information falls into the Knowledge domain and anyactivity that requires a person to recall something such as aname date or location would fall into that domain as wellActivities that fall into the most cognitively demandingdomains of the taxonomy (Application Analysis and Syn-thesis) are considered more challenging for learners butthey allow students to move beyond the simple recall of in-formation and to actively forming learning (McConnell etal 2003) The more challenging levels of the taxonomy areappealing for geoscience educators because the skills thedomains require form the bedrock of scientific thinkingAnalysis requires learners to break down material intocomponent parts or compare and contrast content to a stu-dentrsquos personal experiences The Synthesis domain focuseson putting parts together through the organization of

TABLE I A sample of different Google Earth lesson plans available online most of which fail to take educational objectives ormeasurable assessments into account

Source Lesson Objectives Assessments

Axelson D Plate tectonicshttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plans(July 2010)

Students investigate differentgeographic features of platetectonics

Yes but could bemore specific (ex ldquoClassifyvolcanoes by the three typesrdquo)

Presentation gradedby generic rubricknowledge-basedvocabulary quiz

De Paor D et al Glaciers andglacial geology labhttpwwwlionsodueduddepaorcclilabsGlacialhtml (July 2010)

Students cover glacial geology None written Worksheet

Juicy Geography Modellingsea level change on the GoldCoast httpwwwjuicygeographycouksealevelhtmcredits (July 2010)

Learners model the effectof rising sea levels on thecoast of Australia

None written Presentation orreport no rubricprovided

Scholastic Climate Changehttpteacherscholasticcomlessonplansexploreyourearthlesson1htm (July 2010)

Students tour different areasof the United States affectedby climate change

None written Worksheet

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surfacehttpschooldiscoveryeducationcomlessonplansprog ramsearthssurface(July 2010)

Using Google Earth or Mapsstudents find geographic locationsshown in a video

Yes but none aremeasurable (ex ldquoDiscuss theuse of satellitesrdquo)

Worksheet

100 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

thoughts ideas and information from the content Finallyin Evaluation students judge the value of material for agiven purpose Google Earth can be a means to help stu-dents develop in these cognitive domains Increased cogni-tive involvement translates into increased student interestparticipation and most importantly learning (McConnellet al 2003) Each cognitive domain in Bloomrsquos Taxonomyhas a list of verbs associated with it that are used in objec-tive writing (Overbaugh and Schultz nd lists of theseverbs can be found easily online) These verbs are com-bined with other simple yet critical parts that producemeasurable objectives for teachers to set for their lessonsThe type of cognitive domain the instructor targets in writ-ing a Google Earth-based lesson will affect the objectivesactivities and assessments he or she chooses for the lesson

Although Bloomrsquos taxonomy can be a helpful tool indesigning learning objectives objectives can be taken astep further to indicate the instructional method and thelevel of proficiency at which the learner will be assessed Apopular format for student-centered objective writing isknown as the rdquoABCD structurerdquo which breaks a writtenobjective into four parts audience behavior conditionand degree (Heinrich et al 1996 OrsquoBannon 2001) Com-bining all of these thingsmdashnot necessarily in ABCDordermdashensures that educators have produced objectivesthat are clear and measurable Learning objectives writtenin ABCD format would be done in a fashion similar to this

Students (A) will find the approximate (D) geographiccoordinates of the worldrsquos three tallest mountains (B) usingGoogle Earth (C)

After using Google Earth (C) learners (A) will be able toaccurately (D) explain the location of the volcanoes in thePacific Ring of Fire (B)

Students (A) will be able to create a five stop (D) tour of theGrand Canyon (B) using Google Earth (C)

Putting the objectives into more direct terms for stu-dents may prevent confusion the critical purpose ofinforming learners is to let them know ldquowhat they willlearn why they will learn it and how they will be assessedrdquo(Larson and Keiper 2007)

CREATING QUALITYASSESSMENTSBooker (2007) explained that ldquoAssessmenthellip involves

objectives The objectives need to tie into measurable out-comes Those outcomes need to behellip about student behav-ior Those behaviors need to reflect Bloomrsquos TaxonomyrdquoThe purpose of assessment is not solely grades but ratherto reveal lots of information about a group of studentshow effectively the teacher is teaching them whether a cer-tain topic or skill must be re-taught and how involved stu-dents are in the class (Larson and Keiper 2007)Assessments are derived from the learning objectivesobjectives in turn should be influenced by the results ofassessment (Chun 2010) Educators who tie their assess-ment to objectives based on Bloomrsquos Taxonomy have theadvantage of knowing which cognitive domain they willbe challenging in their students and are deliberately craft-ing assignments that will help their students master thetargeted cognitive domain

Teachers at the Kndash12 and collegiate levels should keepin mind while writing objectives that although higher-order thinking is important it is something which needs tobe gradually introduced to students to be effective (Booker2007 Wineburg and Schneider 2009) A teacher should notstart out with intensive Evaluation-level assignments untilthey are sure that their students have the backgroundknowledge required to do so This also applies not only toschool years or semester-long classes but also to studentsrsquoeducational experiences in the long term The cognitiveability as well as background skills and knowledge of thelearners should be taken into consideration when design-ing objectives and assessments (Booker 2007) This is nodifferent when designing Google Earth-based assignments

TYING OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENTWITH GOOGLE EARTH

Knowing the basics of effective objective and assess-ment creation teachers can make the most out of GoogleEarth activities In this section an example activity or pro-ject will be given for each level of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy Theassignments shown are designed to facilitate student-cen-tered inquiry-based learning and as such relate to three(numbers 1 2 and 6) of the SERCrsquos seven possible uses ofGoogle Earth listed in the Introduction The examples havebeen designed to teach plate tectonics in an introductorygeology course Of course rdquosubduction zonesrdquo (and platetectonics in general) as a topic could easily be changed tofit any other subject matter Each assignment builds (orrdquoscaffoldsrdquo) off of the previous activity allowing studentsto continue to utilize the information and skills they arelearning (Holton and Clarke 2006 Streitwieser et al 2010)

We should note that ideas for several of the activitieshave come directly from or have been modified from awide variety of sources (mostly online) and others havebeen created based off of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy For educa-tors of all levels there are a wide variety of websitesgeared toward Google Earth activitiesmdashthe Science Educa-tion Resource Center lsquos site (serccarletonedusplibrarygoogle_earth howhtml) is one great starting point andprovides an excellent portal to a wide variety of onlinesources such as Google Earth Lessons (httpgelesson-scom) and the website of the Digital Library for Earth Sys-tem Education (DLESE) (dleseorgeducators) Exampleobjectives (in ABCD format) have also been included andwill preface the explanation of the assessment For an in-depth introduction explanation of Google Earth featuresand tutorials the rdquoSupportrdquo page on the Google Earthwebsite (httpearthgooglecomsupport) is an excel-lent resource

KnowledgemdashUsing Google Earth students will record thelocation of three subduction zones This assignment conceptcould be completed after watching a class video readingtextlistening to lecture or even watching a teacher-createdGoogle Earth tour of subduction zones Rather than using aworksheet or an oral review to assess what students havelearned from the lesson students can use Google Earthitself as a tool to demonstrate their knowledge to teachersby placing differently labeledcolored ldquoPlacemarksrdquo in thegeneral area of the appropriate subduction zones The Pla-cemarks can be stored in a folder that the student can labeland with the right click of a mouse email to the teacher to

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 101

check for accuracy Fig 1) As an alternative teachers couldsimply have students write the geographical coordinates oftheir Placemarks For more information on creating Place-marks Juicy Geography provides an excellent Flash-basedtutorial on their resource list (httpwwwjuicygeogra-phycouk resourceslisthtm)

ComprehensionmdashAfter using Google Earth to view thelocation of four Placemarks in the Pacific Ocean students will beable to recognize the morphologic differences between subductionzones and mid-ocean ridge spreading centers This assignmentutilizes one of Google Earthrsquos newer featuresmdashthe rdquoOceanrdquolayermdashto give students an opportunity to delve into thedepths of the Atlantic on a three-dimensional basis Teach-ers can assign a variety of activities to assess what the stu-dents have learned from their experiences Some activitiesmay include taking a student poll using a classroomresponse system (also known as rdquoclickersrdquo) and having thestudents discuss why they chose their answers or evenhaving students explain as a group to the class why theypicked what they did As long as the student response mir-rors what the teacher has decided the appropriate answerto be the teacher can be sure that the student has graspedthe important concept of the assignment

ApplicationmdashFrom the previous information collected stu-dents will write a set of characteristics that one can use to locatesubduction zones and mid-ocean ridges elsewhere on Earth Thisactivity challenges learners to utilize knowledge they haveabout certain geological principles (in this case plate tecton-ics) and apply it on their own Placemarks could be usefulin this activity as wellmdashby having students drop them onfeatures such as mountains or ocean trenches Google Earth

add-ons like rdquoReal-time Earthquakesrdquo by the US Geologi-cal Service (available on the Google Earth site) allow stu-dents to gain an even clearer picture by showing plateboundaries and recent seismic activity (Fig 2) The teachercould also pull up a subduction zone on Google Earth andhave students read out their written characteristics of sub-duction zones The class could then collectively comparetheir descriptions to the shown subduction zone

AnalysismdashUsing Google Earth and the volcano layerlearners will be able to infer that a majority of volcanoes lie nearsubduction zones Google Earthrsquos rdquoVolcanordquo feature revealsthe locations of all of the planetrsquos major volcanoes Groupsof students can analyze the geographical features aroundlarge clusters of volcanoes and compare them to other clus-ters reaching the conclusion that most have a great deal ofsimilarity Using the Plate Boundaries layer in the Real-timeEarthquakes add-on in addition to the Volcano layer makesthe answer obvious most volcanoes lay near plate bounda-ries Students would then have to investigate what wouldcause volcanoes to appear in such locations Having stu-dent groups create a poster about what they have learnedabout a volcano chainrsquos location along a plate boundarycould be used to assess learning Teachers could use a sim-ple rubricmdashdistributed to the students beforehandmdashtograde the poster For educators with a limited amount oftime on their hands Rubistar (rubistar4teachersorg) is afree tool that can expedite rubric creation

SynthesismdashUsing Google Earth and the Volcano layerstudents will formulate a hypothesis to explain why volcanoesoccur along subduction zones and present the information in afive-stop Google Earth tour This activity would give students

FIGURE 1 Placing and editing a Placemark in Google Earth A Placemark resembles a pushpin and be easily placedanywhere on the Google Earth globe The location of the Placemark button is indicated by the arrow (top left)

102 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

an opportunity to create a product that displayed theirknowledge of a given topicmdashin this case reasons why vol-canoes appear alongside subduction zones Learners couldcreate a tour of subduction zone features to present evi-dence for their hypothesis Again the Real-time Earthquakesadd-onrsquos Plate Boundaries layer could be useful here Justas with Placemarks tours can be easily emailed to ateacher for evaluation For an assessment that gives stu-dents so much creative license a rubric would again pro-vide valuable guidelines Rather than the rubric a teacherwould create for the Analysis example however a rubriccreated for this activity would be more beneficial if it werehighly detailed

EvaluationmdashUsing Google Earth the volcano layer andthe USGS Earthquake add-on students will evaluate the accu-racy of their hypothesis To evaluate the hypothesis that wasformed in the Synthesis activity students could comparetheir Google Earth subduction zone tours with those ofother students This might be done by having students cre-ate a table listing evidence that does and does not supporttheir hypothesis that was obtained from the tours whichthey and other students have constructed The teachercould then guide a discussion based on studentsrsquo tablesmaking sure that students come to an accurate conclusionand any incorrect perceptions are cleared up

DISCUSSIONIn our example activities we have shown that clearly

stated objectives and measurable assessments combined

with student-centered inquiry based learning gives teach-ers the tools to improve the effectiveness of their GoogleEarth-based lessons Unlike many available assignmentswritten for Google Earth (Table I) this instructionalapproach of tying objectives and assessments together canmeasure studentsrsquo progress toward the learning goals setby the educator The feedback gained from assessmentallows the instructor to adjust future learning objectives tomeet the learning needs of the students The use of class-room technologymdashGoogle Earthmdashalso helps keep studentsentertained and engaged and allows them to view geologyon a much larger and more interactive scale than theywould have had access to otherwise

In our examples we have taken the concept further bycombining and scaffolding the lessons to teach about theconcept of plate tectonics Our series of activities wasdesigned to ensure that each one would branch off of infor-mation or skills derived from a previous activity Streit-wieser et al (2010) have noted that scaffolding is beneficialin student-centered science classrooms because of thetiered way in which content is introduced to students edu-cators first teach students ldquoabout the cognitive tasks socialinteractions tools and artifacts that constitute scientificpracticesrdquo Once those have been mastered the teacherldquoidentif[ies] aspects of those practices where learners aremost likely to encounter obstacles and provid[es] supportto overcome themrdquo Applying activity in the examples tocognitive domains of Bloomrsquos taxonomy fits perfectly intothe scaffolding concept students are introduced to Knowl-edge-level information and are gradually applying higher-

FIGURE 2 Looking at Japanrsquos coastline through the United States Geological Surveyrsquos rdquoReal-time earthquakesrdquo add-on for Google Earth The hollow arrow represents tectonic plate movements while the white dots (near the whitearrow) signify areas of recent seismic activity The line underneath the hollow arrow is a tectonic plate boundary

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 103

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

and collegiate levels seem to limit their student-centeredGoogle Earth activities to worksheets (Table I) Out of fiveGoogle Earth-based lesson plans found through differentonline sources three were limited to worksheet-based activ-ities and assessment With activities such as worksheetswith fixed answers a teacher may easily assess how stu-dents have met whatever objectives the teacher has set forthe lesson activity or project In doing so they may havealso limited studentsrsquo interest and participation by not pro-viding students with an engaging learning environment

Like other instructional strategies technology use hasthe unfortunate potential of being ineffective if not pairedwith clear objectives and appropriate assessments Thismay even occur without the teacherrsquos knowledge Dittmer( 2010) has warned that although technology ldquoengages stu-dents in their own learning and within a technologicalcontext in which students are generally quite comfortablerdquoit may still end up taking ldquoon the worst elements of oldermodels of correspondence coursesrdquo if used incorrectlyEven with the best of intentions assignments rooted inclassroom technology may still end up reflecting theldquowooden top-downhellipteaching modelrdquo which Dittmer(2010) described This is just as true for the Google Earthsoftware as for any other classroom technology To fullyutilize Google Earth educators must be able to couple stu-dent-centered instructional strategies with clearly definedlearning objectives and motivating engaging assessmentsThis article discusses those issues in further depth

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OBJECTIVESINSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ANDASSESSMENT

Creating effective objectives and following them upwith quality assessments requires an understanding of

what has become one of the most influential objective-writ-ing tools for Kndash12 (and to an extent collegiate) educators(Booker 2007) In his first Taxonomy of Educational Objec-tives handbook Benjamin Bloom (1956) outlined differentways of thinking about information and how learners canuse those different ways of thinking to their advantage Aseducation researchers have extensively written aboutBloomrsquos Taxonomy (eg Booker 2007 McConnell et al2003 Wineburg and Schneider 2009) we only outline thetaxonomy due to its relevance in creating educationalobjectives and assessments

Bloomrsquos taxonomy consists of six separate levels ofthinking (also known as rdquocognitive domainsrdquo) which rangefrom the least to most cognitively challenging (McConnellet al 2003) The domains are Knowledge (the least cogni-tively demanding) Comprehension Application AnalysisSynthesis and Evaluation (the most cognitively demand-ing) (3 Bloom 1956) Each cognitive domain is also associ-ated with a variety of activities designed to utilize domain-respective skills For example the act of remembering spe-cific information falls into the Knowledge domain and anyactivity that requires a person to recall something such as aname date or location would fall into that domain as wellActivities that fall into the most cognitively demandingdomains of the taxonomy (Application Analysis and Syn-thesis) are considered more challenging for learners butthey allow students to move beyond the simple recall of in-formation and to actively forming learning (McConnell etal 2003) The more challenging levels of the taxonomy areappealing for geoscience educators because the skills thedomains require form the bedrock of scientific thinkingAnalysis requires learners to break down material intocomponent parts or compare and contrast content to a stu-dentrsquos personal experiences The Synthesis domain focuseson putting parts together through the organization of

TABLE I A sample of different Google Earth lesson plans available online most of which fail to take educational objectives ormeasurable assessments into account

Source Lesson Objectives Assessments

Axelson D Plate tectonicshttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plans(July 2010)

Students investigate differentgeographic features of platetectonics

Yes but could bemore specific (ex ldquoClassifyvolcanoes by the three typesrdquo)

Presentation gradedby generic rubricknowledge-basedvocabulary quiz

De Paor D et al Glaciers andglacial geology labhttpwwwlionsodueduddepaorcclilabsGlacialhtml (July 2010)

Students cover glacial geology None written Worksheet

Juicy Geography Modellingsea level change on the GoldCoast httpwwwjuicygeographycouksealevelhtmcredits (July 2010)

Learners model the effectof rising sea levels on thecoast of Australia

None written Presentation orreport no rubricprovided

Scholastic Climate Changehttpteacherscholasticcomlessonplansexploreyourearthlesson1htm (July 2010)

Students tour different areasof the United States affectedby climate change

None written Worksheet

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surfacehttpschooldiscoveryeducationcomlessonplansprog ramsearthssurface(July 2010)

Using Google Earth or Mapsstudents find geographic locationsshown in a video

Yes but none aremeasurable (ex ldquoDiscuss theuse of satellitesrdquo)

Worksheet

100 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

thoughts ideas and information from the content Finallyin Evaluation students judge the value of material for agiven purpose Google Earth can be a means to help stu-dents develop in these cognitive domains Increased cogni-tive involvement translates into increased student interestparticipation and most importantly learning (McConnellet al 2003) Each cognitive domain in Bloomrsquos Taxonomyhas a list of verbs associated with it that are used in objec-tive writing (Overbaugh and Schultz nd lists of theseverbs can be found easily online) These verbs are com-bined with other simple yet critical parts that producemeasurable objectives for teachers to set for their lessonsThe type of cognitive domain the instructor targets in writ-ing a Google Earth-based lesson will affect the objectivesactivities and assessments he or she chooses for the lesson

Although Bloomrsquos taxonomy can be a helpful tool indesigning learning objectives objectives can be taken astep further to indicate the instructional method and thelevel of proficiency at which the learner will be assessed Apopular format for student-centered objective writing isknown as the rdquoABCD structurerdquo which breaks a writtenobjective into four parts audience behavior conditionand degree (Heinrich et al 1996 OrsquoBannon 2001) Com-bining all of these thingsmdashnot necessarily in ABCDordermdashensures that educators have produced objectivesthat are clear and measurable Learning objectives writtenin ABCD format would be done in a fashion similar to this

Students (A) will find the approximate (D) geographiccoordinates of the worldrsquos three tallest mountains (B) usingGoogle Earth (C)

After using Google Earth (C) learners (A) will be able toaccurately (D) explain the location of the volcanoes in thePacific Ring of Fire (B)

Students (A) will be able to create a five stop (D) tour of theGrand Canyon (B) using Google Earth (C)

Putting the objectives into more direct terms for stu-dents may prevent confusion the critical purpose ofinforming learners is to let them know ldquowhat they willlearn why they will learn it and how they will be assessedrdquo(Larson and Keiper 2007)

CREATING QUALITYASSESSMENTSBooker (2007) explained that ldquoAssessmenthellip involves

objectives The objectives need to tie into measurable out-comes Those outcomes need to behellip about student behav-ior Those behaviors need to reflect Bloomrsquos TaxonomyrdquoThe purpose of assessment is not solely grades but ratherto reveal lots of information about a group of studentshow effectively the teacher is teaching them whether a cer-tain topic or skill must be re-taught and how involved stu-dents are in the class (Larson and Keiper 2007)Assessments are derived from the learning objectivesobjectives in turn should be influenced by the results ofassessment (Chun 2010) Educators who tie their assess-ment to objectives based on Bloomrsquos Taxonomy have theadvantage of knowing which cognitive domain they willbe challenging in their students and are deliberately craft-ing assignments that will help their students master thetargeted cognitive domain

Teachers at the Kndash12 and collegiate levels should keepin mind while writing objectives that although higher-order thinking is important it is something which needs tobe gradually introduced to students to be effective (Booker2007 Wineburg and Schneider 2009) A teacher should notstart out with intensive Evaluation-level assignments untilthey are sure that their students have the backgroundknowledge required to do so This also applies not only toschool years or semester-long classes but also to studentsrsquoeducational experiences in the long term The cognitiveability as well as background skills and knowledge of thelearners should be taken into consideration when design-ing objectives and assessments (Booker 2007) This is nodifferent when designing Google Earth-based assignments

TYING OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENTWITH GOOGLE EARTH

Knowing the basics of effective objective and assess-ment creation teachers can make the most out of GoogleEarth activities In this section an example activity or pro-ject will be given for each level of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy Theassignments shown are designed to facilitate student-cen-tered inquiry-based learning and as such relate to three(numbers 1 2 and 6) of the SERCrsquos seven possible uses ofGoogle Earth listed in the Introduction The examples havebeen designed to teach plate tectonics in an introductorygeology course Of course rdquosubduction zonesrdquo (and platetectonics in general) as a topic could easily be changed tofit any other subject matter Each assignment builds (orrdquoscaffoldsrdquo) off of the previous activity allowing studentsto continue to utilize the information and skills they arelearning (Holton and Clarke 2006 Streitwieser et al 2010)

We should note that ideas for several of the activitieshave come directly from or have been modified from awide variety of sources (mostly online) and others havebeen created based off of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy For educa-tors of all levels there are a wide variety of websitesgeared toward Google Earth activitiesmdashthe Science Educa-tion Resource Center lsquos site (serccarletonedusplibrarygoogle_earth howhtml) is one great starting point andprovides an excellent portal to a wide variety of onlinesources such as Google Earth Lessons (httpgelesson-scom) and the website of the Digital Library for Earth Sys-tem Education (DLESE) (dleseorgeducators) Exampleobjectives (in ABCD format) have also been included andwill preface the explanation of the assessment For an in-depth introduction explanation of Google Earth featuresand tutorials the rdquoSupportrdquo page on the Google Earthwebsite (httpearthgooglecomsupport) is an excel-lent resource

KnowledgemdashUsing Google Earth students will record thelocation of three subduction zones This assignment conceptcould be completed after watching a class video readingtextlistening to lecture or even watching a teacher-createdGoogle Earth tour of subduction zones Rather than using aworksheet or an oral review to assess what students havelearned from the lesson students can use Google Earthitself as a tool to demonstrate their knowledge to teachersby placing differently labeledcolored ldquoPlacemarksrdquo in thegeneral area of the appropriate subduction zones The Pla-cemarks can be stored in a folder that the student can labeland with the right click of a mouse email to the teacher to

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 101

check for accuracy Fig 1) As an alternative teachers couldsimply have students write the geographical coordinates oftheir Placemarks For more information on creating Place-marks Juicy Geography provides an excellent Flash-basedtutorial on their resource list (httpwwwjuicygeogra-phycouk resourceslisthtm)

ComprehensionmdashAfter using Google Earth to view thelocation of four Placemarks in the Pacific Ocean students will beable to recognize the morphologic differences between subductionzones and mid-ocean ridge spreading centers This assignmentutilizes one of Google Earthrsquos newer featuresmdashthe rdquoOceanrdquolayermdashto give students an opportunity to delve into thedepths of the Atlantic on a three-dimensional basis Teach-ers can assign a variety of activities to assess what the stu-dents have learned from their experiences Some activitiesmay include taking a student poll using a classroomresponse system (also known as rdquoclickersrdquo) and having thestudents discuss why they chose their answers or evenhaving students explain as a group to the class why theypicked what they did As long as the student response mir-rors what the teacher has decided the appropriate answerto be the teacher can be sure that the student has graspedthe important concept of the assignment

ApplicationmdashFrom the previous information collected stu-dents will write a set of characteristics that one can use to locatesubduction zones and mid-ocean ridges elsewhere on Earth Thisactivity challenges learners to utilize knowledge they haveabout certain geological principles (in this case plate tecton-ics) and apply it on their own Placemarks could be usefulin this activity as wellmdashby having students drop them onfeatures such as mountains or ocean trenches Google Earth

add-ons like rdquoReal-time Earthquakesrdquo by the US Geologi-cal Service (available on the Google Earth site) allow stu-dents to gain an even clearer picture by showing plateboundaries and recent seismic activity (Fig 2) The teachercould also pull up a subduction zone on Google Earth andhave students read out their written characteristics of sub-duction zones The class could then collectively comparetheir descriptions to the shown subduction zone

AnalysismdashUsing Google Earth and the volcano layerlearners will be able to infer that a majority of volcanoes lie nearsubduction zones Google Earthrsquos rdquoVolcanordquo feature revealsthe locations of all of the planetrsquos major volcanoes Groupsof students can analyze the geographical features aroundlarge clusters of volcanoes and compare them to other clus-ters reaching the conclusion that most have a great deal ofsimilarity Using the Plate Boundaries layer in the Real-timeEarthquakes add-on in addition to the Volcano layer makesthe answer obvious most volcanoes lay near plate bounda-ries Students would then have to investigate what wouldcause volcanoes to appear in such locations Having stu-dent groups create a poster about what they have learnedabout a volcano chainrsquos location along a plate boundarycould be used to assess learning Teachers could use a sim-ple rubricmdashdistributed to the students beforehandmdashtograde the poster For educators with a limited amount oftime on their hands Rubistar (rubistar4teachersorg) is afree tool that can expedite rubric creation

SynthesismdashUsing Google Earth and the Volcano layerstudents will formulate a hypothesis to explain why volcanoesoccur along subduction zones and present the information in afive-stop Google Earth tour This activity would give students

FIGURE 1 Placing and editing a Placemark in Google Earth A Placemark resembles a pushpin and be easily placedanywhere on the Google Earth globe The location of the Placemark button is indicated by the arrow (top left)

102 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

an opportunity to create a product that displayed theirknowledge of a given topicmdashin this case reasons why vol-canoes appear alongside subduction zones Learners couldcreate a tour of subduction zone features to present evi-dence for their hypothesis Again the Real-time Earthquakesadd-onrsquos Plate Boundaries layer could be useful here Justas with Placemarks tours can be easily emailed to ateacher for evaluation For an assessment that gives stu-dents so much creative license a rubric would again pro-vide valuable guidelines Rather than the rubric a teacherwould create for the Analysis example however a rubriccreated for this activity would be more beneficial if it werehighly detailed

EvaluationmdashUsing Google Earth the volcano layer andthe USGS Earthquake add-on students will evaluate the accu-racy of their hypothesis To evaluate the hypothesis that wasformed in the Synthesis activity students could comparetheir Google Earth subduction zone tours with those ofother students This might be done by having students cre-ate a table listing evidence that does and does not supporttheir hypothesis that was obtained from the tours whichthey and other students have constructed The teachercould then guide a discussion based on studentsrsquo tablesmaking sure that students come to an accurate conclusionand any incorrect perceptions are cleared up

DISCUSSIONIn our example activities we have shown that clearly

stated objectives and measurable assessments combined

with student-centered inquiry based learning gives teach-ers the tools to improve the effectiveness of their GoogleEarth-based lessons Unlike many available assignmentswritten for Google Earth (Table I) this instructionalapproach of tying objectives and assessments together canmeasure studentsrsquo progress toward the learning goals setby the educator The feedback gained from assessmentallows the instructor to adjust future learning objectives tomeet the learning needs of the students The use of class-room technologymdashGoogle Earthmdashalso helps keep studentsentertained and engaged and allows them to view geologyon a much larger and more interactive scale than theywould have had access to otherwise

In our examples we have taken the concept further bycombining and scaffolding the lessons to teach about theconcept of plate tectonics Our series of activities wasdesigned to ensure that each one would branch off of infor-mation or skills derived from a previous activity Streit-wieser et al (2010) have noted that scaffolding is beneficialin student-centered science classrooms because of thetiered way in which content is introduced to students edu-cators first teach students ldquoabout the cognitive tasks socialinteractions tools and artifacts that constitute scientificpracticesrdquo Once those have been mastered the teacherldquoidentif[ies] aspects of those practices where learners aremost likely to encounter obstacles and provid[es] supportto overcome themrdquo Applying activity in the examples tocognitive domains of Bloomrsquos taxonomy fits perfectly intothe scaffolding concept students are introduced to Knowl-edge-level information and are gradually applying higher-

FIGURE 2 Looking at Japanrsquos coastline through the United States Geological Surveyrsquos rdquoReal-time earthquakesrdquo add-on for Google Earth The hollow arrow represents tectonic plate movements while the white dots (near the whitearrow) signify areas of recent seismic activity The line underneath the hollow arrow is a tectonic plate boundary

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 103

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

thoughts ideas and information from the content Finallyin Evaluation students judge the value of material for agiven purpose Google Earth can be a means to help stu-dents develop in these cognitive domains Increased cogni-tive involvement translates into increased student interestparticipation and most importantly learning (McConnellet al 2003) Each cognitive domain in Bloomrsquos Taxonomyhas a list of verbs associated with it that are used in objec-tive writing (Overbaugh and Schultz nd lists of theseverbs can be found easily online) These verbs are com-bined with other simple yet critical parts that producemeasurable objectives for teachers to set for their lessonsThe type of cognitive domain the instructor targets in writ-ing a Google Earth-based lesson will affect the objectivesactivities and assessments he or she chooses for the lesson

Although Bloomrsquos taxonomy can be a helpful tool indesigning learning objectives objectives can be taken astep further to indicate the instructional method and thelevel of proficiency at which the learner will be assessed Apopular format for student-centered objective writing isknown as the rdquoABCD structurerdquo which breaks a writtenobjective into four parts audience behavior conditionand degree (Heinrich et al 1996 OrsquoBannon 2001) Com-bining all of these thingsmdashnot necessarily in ABCDordermdashensures that educators have produced objectivesthat are clear and measurable Learning objectives writtenin ABCD format would be done in a fashion similar to this

Students (A) will find the approximate (D) geographiccoordinates of the worldrsquos three tallest mountains (B) usingGoogle Earth (C)

After using Google Earth (C) learners (A) will be able toaccurately (D) explain the location of the volcanoes in thePacific Ring of Fire (B)

Students (A) will be able to create a five stop (D) tour of theGrand Canyon (B) using Google Earth (C)

Putting the objectives into more direct terms for stu-dents may prevent confusion the critical purpose ofinforming learners is to let them know ldquowhat they willlearn why they will learn it and how they will be assessedrdquo(Larson and Keiper 2007)

CREATING QUALITYASSESSMENTSBooker (2007) explained that ldquoAssessmenthellip involves

objectives The objectives need to tie into measurable out-comes Those outcomes need to behellip about student behav-ior Those behaviors need to reflect Bloomrsquos TaxonomyrdquoThe purpose of assessment is not solely grades but ratherto reveal lots of information about a group of studentshow effectively the teacher is teaching them whether a cer-tain topic or skill must be re-taught and how involved stu-dents are in the class (Larson and Keiper 2007)Assessments are derived from the learning objectivesobjectives in turn should be influenced by the results ofassessment (Chun 2010) Educators who tie their assess-ment to objectives based on Bloomrsquos Taxonomy have theadvantage of knowing which cognitive domain they willbe challenging in their students and are deliberately craft-ing assignments that will help their students master thetargeted cognitive domain

Teachers at the Kndash12 and collegiate levels should keepin mind while writing objectives that although higher-order thinking is important it is something which needs tobe gradually introduced to students to be effective (Booker2007 Wineburg and Schneider 2009) A teacher should notstart out with intensive Evaluation-level assignments untilthey are sure that their students have the backgroundknowledge required to do so This also applies not only toschool years or semester-long classes but also to studentsrsquoeducational experiences in the long term The cognitiveability as well as background skills and knowledge of thelearners should be taken into consideration when design-ing objectives and assessments (Booker 2007) This is nodifferent when designing Google Earth-based assignments

TYING OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENTWITH GOOGLE EARTH

Knowing the basics of effective objective and assess-ment creation teachers can make the most out of GoogleEarth activities In this section an example activity or pro-ject will be given for each level of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy Theassignments shown are designed to facilitate student-cen-tered inquiry-based learning and as such relate to three(numbers 1 2 and 6) of the SERCrsquos seven possible uses ofGoogle Earth listed in the Introduction The examples havebeen designed to teach plate tectonics in an introductorygeology course Of course rdquosubduction zonesrdquo (and platetectonics in general) as a topic could easily be changed tofit any other subject matter Each assignment builds (orrdquoscaffoldsrdquo) off of the previous activity allowing studentsto continue to utilize the information and skills they arelearning (Holton and Clarke 2006 Streitwieser et al 2010)

We should note that ideas for several of the activitieshave come directly from or have been modified from awide variety of sources (mostly online) and others havebeen created based off of Bloomrsquos Taxonomy For educa-tors of all levels there are a wide variety of websitesgeared toward Google Earth activitiesmdashthe Science Educa-tion Resource Center lsquos site (serccarletonedusplibrarygoogle_earth howhtml) is one great starting point andprovides an excellent portal to a wide variety of onlinesources such as Google Earth Lessons (httpgelesson-scom) and the website of the Digital Library for Earth Sys-tem Education (DLESE) (dleseorgeducators) Exampleobjectives (in ABCD format) have also been included andwill preface the explanation of the assessment For an in-depth introduction explanation of Google Earth featuresand tutorials the rdquoSupportrdquo page on the Google Earthwebsite (httpearthgooglecomsupport) is an excel-lent resource

KnowledgemdashUsing Google Earth students will record thelocation of three subduction zones This assignment conceptcould be completed after watching a class video readingtextlistening to lecture or even watching a teacher-createdGoogle Earth tour of subduction zones Rather than using aworksheet or an oral review to assess what students havelearned from the lesson students can use Google Earthitself as a tool to demonstrate their knowledge to teachersby placing differently labeledcolored ldquoPlacemarksrdquo in thegeneral area of the appropriate subduction zones The Pla-cemarks can be stored in a folder that the student can labeland with the right click of a mouse email to the teacher to

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 101

check for accuracy Fig 1) As an alternative teachers couldsimply have students write the geographical coordinates oftheir Placemarks For more information on creating Place-marks Juicy Geography provides an excellent Flash-basedtutorial on their resource list (httpwwwjuicygeogra-phycouk resourceslisthtm)

ComprehensionmdashAfter using Google Earth to view thelocation of four Placemarks in the Pacific Ocean students will beable to recognize the morphologic differences between subductionzones and mid-ocean ridge spreading centers This assignmentutilizes one of Google Earthrsquos newer featuresmdashthe rdquoOceanrdquolayermdashto give students an opportunity to delve into thedepths of the Atlantic on a three-dimensional basis Teach-ers can assign a variety of activities to assess what the stu-dents have learned from their experiences Some activitiesmay include taking a student poll using a classroomresponse system (also known as rdquoclickersrdquo) and having thestudents discuss why they chose their answers or evenhaving students explain as a group to the class why theypicked what they did As long as the student response mir-rors what the teacher has decided the appropriate answerto be the teacher can be sure that the student has graspedthe important concept of the assignment

ApplicationmdashFrom the previous information collected stu-dents will write a set of characteristics that one can use to locatesubduction zones and mid-ocean ridges elsewhere on Earth Thisactivity challenges learners to utilize knowledge they haveabout certain geological principles (in this case plate tecton-ics) and apply it on their own Placemarks could be usefulin this activity as wellmdashby having students drop them onfeatures such as mountains or ocean trenches Google Earth

add-ons like rdquoReal-time Earthquakesrdquo by the US Geologi-cal Service (available on the Google Earth site) allow stu-dents to gain an even clearer picture by showing plateboundaries and recent seismic activity (Fig 2) The teachercould also pull up a subduction zone on Google Earth andhave students read out their written characteristics of sub-duction zones The class could then collectively comparetheir descriptions to the shown subduction zone

AnalysismdashUsing Google Earth and the volcano layerlearners will be able to infer that a majority of volcanoes lie nearsubduction zones Google Earthrsquos rdquoVolcanordquo feature revealsthe locations of all of the planetrsquos major volcanoes Groupsof students can analyze the geographical features aroundlarge clusters of volcanoes and compare them to other clus-ters reaching the conclusion that most have a great deal ofsimilarity Using the Plate Boundaries layer in the Real-timeEarthquakes add-on in addition to the Volcano layer makesthe answer obvious most volcanoes lay near plate bounda-ries Students would then have to investigate what wouldcause volcanoes to appear in such locations Having stu-dent groups create a poster about what they have learnedabout a volcano chainrsquos location along a plate boundarycould be used to assess learning Teachers could use a sim-ple rubricmdashdistributed to the students beforehandmdashtograde the poster For educators with a limited amount oftime on their hands Rubistar (rubistar4teachersorg) is afree tool that can expedite rubric creation

SynthesismdashUsing Google Earth and the Volcano layerstudents will formulate a hypothesis to explain why volcanoesoccur along subduction zones and present the information in afive-stop Google Earth tour This activity would give students

FIGURE 1 Placing and editing a Placemark in Google Earth A Placemark resembles a pushpin and be easily placedanywhere on the Google Earth globe The location of the Placemark button is indicated by the arrow (top left)

102 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

an opportunity to create a product that displayed theirknowledge of a given topicmdashin this case reasons why vol-canoes appear alongside subduction zones Learners couldcreate a tour of subduction zone features to present evi-dence for their hypothesis Again the Real-time Earthquakesadd-onrsquos Plate Boundaries layer could be useful here Justas with Placemarks tours can be easily emailed to ateacher for evaluation For an assessment that gives stu-dents so much creative license a rubric would again pro-vide valuable guidelines Rather than the rubric a teacherwould create for the Analysis example however a rubriccreated for this activity would be more beneficial if it werehighly detailed

EvaluationmdashUsing Google Earth the volcano layer andthe USGS Earthquake add-on students will evaluate the accu-racy of their hypothesis To evaluate the hypothesis that wasformed in the Synthesis activity students could comparetheir Google Earth subduction zone tours with those ofother students This might be done by having students cre-ate a table listing evidence that does and does not supporttheir hypothesis that was obtained from the tours whichthey and other students have constructed The teachercould then guide a discussion based on studentsrsquo tablesmaking sure that students come to an accurate conclusionand any incorrect perceptions are cleared up

DISCUSSIONIn our example activities we have shown that clearly

stated objectives and measurable assessments combined

with student-centered inquiry based learning gives teach-ers the tools to improve the effectiveness of their GoogleEarth-based lessons Unlike many available assignmentswritten for Google Earth (Table I) this instructionalapproach of tying objectives and assessments together canmeasure studentsrsquo progress toward the learning goals setby the educator The feedback gained from assessmentallows the instructor to adjust future learning objectives tomeet the learning needs of the students The use of class-room technologymdashGoogle Earthmdashalso helps keep studentsentertained and engaged and allows them to view geologyon a much larger and more interactive scale than theywould have had access to otherwise

In our examples we have taken the concept further bycombining and scaffolding the lessons to teach about theconcept of plate tectonics Our series of activities wasdesigned to ensure that each one would branch off of infor-mation or skills derived from a previous activity Streit-wieser et al (2010) have noted that scaffolding is beneficialin student-centered science classrooms because of thetiered way in which content is introduced to students edu-cators first teach students ldquoabout the cognitive tasks socialinteractions tools and artifacts that constitute scientificpracticesrdquo Once those have been mastered the teacherldquoidentif[ies] aspects of those practices where learners aremost likely to encounter obstacles and provid[es] supportto overcome themrdquo Applying activity in the examples tocognitive domains of Bloomrsquos taxonomy fits perfectly intothe scaffolding concept students are introduced to Knowl-edge-level information and are gradually applying higher-

FIGURE 2 Looking at Japanrsquos coastline through the United States Geological Surveyrsquos rdquoReal-time earthquakesrdquo add-on for Google Earth The hollow arrow represents tectonic plate movements while the white dots (near the whitearrow) signify areas of recent seismic activity The line underneath the hollow arrow is a tectonic plate boundary

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 103

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

check for accuracy Fig 1) As an alternative teachers couldsimply have students write the geographical coordinates oftheir Placemarks For more information on creating Place-marks Juicy Geography provides an excellent Flash-basedtutorial on their resource list (httpwwwjuicygeogra-phycouk resourceslisthtm)

ComprehensionmdashAfter using Google Earth to view thelocation of four Placemarks in the Pacific Ocean students will beable to recognize the morphologic differences between subductionzones and mid-ocean ridge spreading centers This assignmentutilizes one of Google Earthrsquos newer featuresmdashthe rdquoOceanrdquolayermdashto give students an opportunity to delve into thedepths of the Atlantic on a three-dimensional basis Teach-ers can assign a variety of activities to assess what the stu-dents have learned from their experiences Some activitiesmay include taking a student poll using a classroomresponse system (also known as rdquoclickersrdquo) and having thestudents discuss why they chose their answers or evenhaving students explain as a group to the class why theypicked what they did As long as the student response mir-rors what the teacher has decided the appropriate answerto be the teacher can be sure that the student has graspedthe important concept of the assignment

ApplicationmdashFrom the previous information collected stu-dents will write a set of characteristics that one can use to locatesubduction zones and mid-ocean ridges elsewhere on Earth Thisactivity challenges learners to utilize knowledge they haveabout certain geological principles (in this case plate tecton-ics) and apply it on their own Placemarks could be usefulin this activity as wellmdashby having students drop them onfeatures such as mountains or ocean trenches Google Earth

add-ons like rdquoReal-time Earthquakesrdquo by the US Geologi-cal Service (available on the Google Earth site) allow stu-dents to gain an even clearer picture by showing plateboundaries and recent seismic activity (Fig 2) The teachercould also pull up a subduction zone on Google Earth andhave students read out their written characteristics of sub-duction zones The class could then collectively comparetheir descriptions to the shown subduction zone

AnalysismdashUsing Google Earth and the volcano layerlearners will be able to infer that a majority of volcanoes lie nearsubduction zones Google Earthrsquos rdquoVolcanordquo feature revealsthe locations of all of the planetrsquos major volcanoes Groupsof students can analyze the geographical features aroundlarge clusters of volcanoes and compare them to other clus-ters reaching the conclusion that most have a great deal ofsimilarity Using the Plate Boundaries layer in the Real-timeEarthquakes add-on in addition to the Volcano layer makesthe answer obvious most volcanoes lay near plate bounda-ries Students would then have to investigate what wouldcause volcanoes to appear in such locations Having stu-dent groups create a poster about what they have learnedabout a volcano chainrsquos location along a plate boundarycould be used to assess learning Teachers could use a sim-ple rubricmdashdistributed to the students beforehandmdashtograde the poster For educators with a limited amount oftime on their hands Rubistar (rubistar4teachersorg) is afree tool that can expedite rubric creation

SynthesismdashUsing Google Earth and the Volcano layerstudents will formulate a hypothesis to explain why volcanoesoccur along subduction zones and present the information in afive-stop Google Earth tour This activity would give students

FIGURE 1 Placing and editing a Placemark in Google Earth A Placemark resembles a pushpin and be easily placedanywhere on the Google Earth globe The location of the Placemark button is indicated by the arrow (top left)

102 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

an opportunity to create a product that displayed theirknowledge of a given topicmdashin this case reasons why vol-canoes appear alongside subduction zones Learners couldcreate a tour of subduction zone features to present evi-dence for their hypothesis Again the Real-time Earthquakesadd-onrsquos Plate Boundaries layer could be useful here Justas with Placemarks tours can be easily emailed to ateacher for evaluation For an assessment that gives stu-dents so much creative license a rubric would again pro-vide valuable guidelines Rather than the rubric a teacherwould create for the Analysis example however a rubriccreated for this activity would be more beneficial if it werehighly detailed

EvaluationmdashUsing Google Earth the volcano layer andthe USGS Earthquake add-on students will evaluate the accu-racy of their hypothesis To evaluate the hypothesis that wasformed in the Synthesis activity students could comparetheir Google Earth subduction zone tours with those ofother students This might be done by having students cre-ate a table listing evidence that does and does not supporttheir hypothesis that was obtained from the tours whichthey and other students have constructed The teachercould then guide a discussion based on studentsrsquo tablesmaking sure that students come to an accurate conclusionand any incorrect perceptions are cleared up

DISCUSSIONIn our example activities we have shown that clearly

stated objectives and measurable assessments combined

with student-centered inquiry based learning gives teach-ers the tools to improve the effectiveness of their GoogleEarth-based lessons Unlike many available assignmentswritten for Google Earth (Table I) this instructionalapproach of tying objectives and assessments together canmeasure studentsrsquo progress toward the learning goals setby the educator The feedback gained from assessmentallows the instructor to adjust future learning objectives tomeet the learning needs of the students The use of class-room technologymdashGoogle Earthmdashalso helps keep studentsentertained and engaged and allows them to view geologyon a much larger and more interactive scale than theywould have had access to otherwise

In our examples we have taken the concept further bycombining and scaffolding the lessons to teach about theconcept of plate tectonics Our series of activities wasdesigned to ensure that each one would branch off of infor-mation or skills derived from a previous activity Streit-wieser et al (2010) have noted that scaffolding is beneficialin student-centered science classrooms because of thetiered way in which content is introduced to students edu-cators first teach students ldquoabout the cognitive tasks socialinteractions tools and artifacts that constitute scientificpracticesrdquo Once those have been mastered the teacherldquoidentif[ies] aspects of those practices where learners aremost likely to encounter obstacles and provid[es] supportto overcome themrdquo Applying activity in the examples tocognitive domains of Bloomrsquos taxonomy fits perfectly intothe scaffolding concept students are introduced to Knowl-edge-level information and are gradually applying higher-

FIGURE 2 Looking at Japanrsquos coastline through the United States Geological Surveyrsquos rdquoReal-time earthquakesrdquo add-on for Google Earth The hollow arrow represents tectonic plate movements while the white dots (near the whitearrow) signify areas of recent seismic activity The line underneath the hollow arrow is a tectonic plate boundary

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 103

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

an opportunity to create a product that displayed theirknowledge of a given topicmdashin this case reasons why vol-canoes appear alongside subduction zones Learners couldcreate a tour of subduction zone features to present evi-dence for their hypothesis Again the Real-time Earthquakesadd-onrsquos Plate Boundaries layer could be useful here Justas with Placemarks tours can be easily emailed to ateacher for evaluation For an assessment that gives stu-dents so much creative license a rubric would again pro-vide valuable guidelines Rather than the rubric a teacherwould create for the Analysis example however a rubriccreated for this activity would be more beneficial if it werehighly detailed

EvaluationmdashUsing Google Earth the volcano layer andthe USGS Earthquake add-on students will evaluate the accu-racy of their hypothesis To evaluate the hypothesis that wasformed in the Synthesis activity students could comparetheir Google Earth subduction zone tours with those ofother students This might be done by having students cre-ate a table listing evidence that does and does not supporttheir hypothesis that was obtained from the tours whichthey and other students have constructed The teachercould then guide a discussion based on studentsrsquo tablesmaking sure that students come to an accurate conclusionand any incorrect perceptions are cleared up

DISCUSSIONIn our example activities we have shown that clearly

stated objectives and measurable assessments combined

with student-centered inquiry based learning gives teach-ers the tools to improve the effectiveness of their GoogleEarth-based lessons Unlike many available assignmentswritten for Google Earth (Table I) this instructionalapproach of tying objectives and assessments together canmeasure studentsrsquo progress toward the learning goals setby the educator The feedback gained from assessmentallows the instructor to adjust future learning objectives tomeet the learning needs of the students The use of class-room technologymdashGoogle Earthmdashalso helps keep studentsentertained and engaged and allows them to view geologyon a much larger and more interactive scale than theywould have had access to otherwise

In our examples we have taken the concept further bycombining and scaffolding the lessons to teach about theconcept of plate tectonics Our series of activities wasdesigned to ensure that each one would branch off of infor-mation or skills derived from a previous activity Streit-wieser et al (2010) have noted that scaffolding is beneficialin student-centered science classrooms because of thetiered way in which content is introduced to students edu-cators first teach students ldquoabout the cognitive tasks socialinteractions tools and artifacts that constitute scientificpracticesrdquo Once those have been mastered the teacherldquoidentif[ies] aspects of those practices where learners aremost likely to encounter obstacles and provid[es] supportto overcome themrdquo Applying activity in the examples tocognitive domains of Bloomrsquos taxonomy fits perfectly intothe scaffolding concept students are introduced to Knowl-edge-level information and are gradually applying higher-

FIGURE 2 Looking at Japanrsquos coastline through the United States Geological Surveyrsquos rdquoReal-time earthquakesrdquo add-on for Google Earth The hollow arrow represents tectonic plate movements while the white dots (near the whitearrow) signify areas of recent seismic activity The line underneath the hollow arrow is a tectonic plate boundary

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 103

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

order thinking skills in a scientific manner Since lessonsare student-centered the teacher acts as a facilitator ofknowledge and assists students who are having difficulty

These teaching strategies are not restricted to ourexample activities and can be altered in a variety of waysto fit any teaching activity For instance the scaffoldingtechnique used in the example activities could easily fitinto a single dayrsquos lesson or be stretched out over an entiresemester while remaining just as effective (eg Vacca2008 Streitwieser et al 2010)

The same strategies used in our examples could beapplied to any of the geoscience Google Earth activitiesfound in Table I to maximize their potential for studentlearning Adding more specific educational objectives inABCD style would give both the teacher and studentsclear expectations of what students should be able to learnthrough the lesson or activity and how they will beassessed For instance in the website Juicy Geographyrsquoslesson about sea level changes (where the description ofthe lessonrsquos goals is to ldquocreate a series of Google Earth pol-ygons to illustrate the impact of sea level changerdquo) a morespecific objective may be useful Using Google Earth stu-dents will model the effects of sea level change on the AustralianGold Coast and create a five-stop tour to highlight the worst hitareas The assessment (ldquomodeling sea level change and cre-ating a five-stop tourrdquo) also becomes more specific andclearer for students as well as keeping them engagedwhile creating the tour The lesson would not end therehowever Depending on the quality of studentsrsquo tours theteacher would then reteach the content to students whodid poorly or build upon the lessonrsquos content and moveforward Applying the same appropriate research-basedobjectives utilizing engaging student-centered learningtechniques and directly assessing student learning has thepotential to make any Google Earth-based lesson moreeffective

Suggestions for Further StudyGoogle Earth is still a relatively new program and as

such there is still much work that needs to be done to inte-grate it into the classroom instruction Here we haveargued that employing a student-centered inquiry-basedapproach can maximize student learning potential whenusing Google Earth in geoscience classes However addi-tional work should also address student skill and retentionlevels from Google Earth use (eg McConnell et al 2003)as well as the ability of students to transfer the knowledgethey have learned from this virtual setting to real-world sit-uations By better understanding these attributes of thislearning environment educators can make more informeddecisions about the use and integration of Google Earthinto their classrooms

CONCLUSIONGoogle Earth has the potential to bring the best of edu-

cational technology into teachersrsquo classrooms It allows stu-dents to go beyond simple maps and worksheets toprovide them with a unique interactive and engaginglook at our planet Given its variety of add-ons and layersit is capable of being used in a wide variety of contentareas Even better Google Earth is a tool that can transportlearners across the entire globe in seconds giving them an

opportunity to interact with areas of our planet that theywill most likely never travel to Its ease of use free priceand adaptability make Google Earth a must for any teach-errsquos classroom

Possibly no other content area can benefit more fromusing Google Earth than that of geoscience educationRather than various maps or diagrams of geological datait is now condensed into a virtual interactive three-dimensional model Fortunately geoscience educators atall levels understand that potential and have diligentlyworked to place Google Earth into their classrooms Thequestion thenmdashas with any educational technologymdashishow to maximize its potential in a learning environmentFor many teachers with educational training in their back-ground ideas such as learning objectives and assessmentmay be second nature Others may have never had theopportunity to be exposed to them This purpose of thisarticle then is not to criticize those who may be unfami-liar with objective writing or tying assessments to thoseobjectivesmdashit is to provide guidance on how they can becreated and tied to the Google Earth software Detailedobjectives when measured by student-centered inquiry-based assessments and combined with excellent programslike Google Earth will help geoscience educators facilitatetheir studentsrsquo learning in a way teachers could onlydream about ten years ago and will hopefully instill instudents a sense of respect and understanding for thosewho study our planet

REFERENCES4teachersorg 2000 Rubistar Create projects for your project-

based learning activities lthttprubistar4teachersorggt(July 2010)

Axelson D Plate tectonics lthttpsitescontentgooglecomgoogle-earth-for-educatorsHomegoogle-earth-lesson-plansgt(July 2010)

Bloom BS editor 1956 Taxonomy of educational objectivesThe classification of educational goals Chicago Susan FauerCompany Inc p 201ndash207

Booker M 2007 A roof without walls Benjamin Bloomrsquos taxon-omy and the misdirection of American education AcademicQuestions v 20 no 4 p 347ndash355

Bryk AS 2010 Organizing schools for improvement Phi DeltaKappan v 91 no 7 p 23ndash30

Cauley FG Aiken KD and Whitney LK 2010 Technologiesacross our curriculum A study of technology integration inthe classroom Journal of Education for Business v 85 no 2p 114ndash118

Chun M 2010 Taking teaching to (performance) task Linkingpedagogical and assessment practices Change v 42 no 2p 22ndash29

De Paor D Whitmeyer S Pence N and Weisbrot L Glaciersand glacial geology lab lthttpwwwlionsoduedu~dde-paorcclilabsGlacialhtmlgt (July 2010)

Digital Library for Earth System Education 2009 Evaluation andassessment help for educators httpwwwdleseorgedu-catorsevalphp (July 2010)

Dittmer J 2010 Immersive virtual worlds in university-levelhuman geography courses International Research in Geo-graphical and Environmental Education v 19 no 2 p 139ndash154

Discovery Education Earthrsquos surface lthttpschooldiscoverye-ducationcom lessonplansprogramsearthssurfacegt (July2010)

104 Johnson Lang and Zophy J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011)

Earth 2010 Google Earth Support httpearthgooglecomsup-port (July 2010)

Google Earth Lessons 2008 Google earth lessons lthttpgeles-sonscomgt (July 2010)

Hannafin M Hannafin K and Gabbitas B 2009 Re-examiningcognition during student-centered Web-based learning Edu-cational Technology Research and Development v 57 no 6p 767ndash785

Heinrich R Molenda M Russell JD and Smaldino SE 1996Instructional media and technologies for learning Engle-wood Cliffs NJ Merrill

Herrington J and Kervin L 2007 Authentic learning supportedby technology ten suggestions and cases of integration inclassrooms Educational Media International v 44 no 3 p219ndash236

Holton D and Clarke D 2006 Scaffolding and metacognitionInternational Journal of Mathematical Education in Scienceand Technology v 37 no 2 p 127ndash143

Juicy Geography Modelling sea level change on the Gold Coastlthttpwwwjuicygeographycouksealevelhtmcreditsgt(July 2010)

Juicy Geography Resources lthttpwwwjuicygeography-coukresourceslisthtmgt (July 2010)

Lamb A and Johnson L 2008 Virtual expeditions GoogleEarth GIS and geovisualization technologies in teachingand learning Teacher Librarian v 37 no 3 p 81ndash85

Larson BE and Keiper TA 2007 Instructional strategies formiddle and high school Routledge p 61ndash85

Mannel S Winkelman K Phelps S and Fredenberg M 2007Applications of a GIS program to tribal research its benefitschallenges and extensions to the community Journal of Geo-science Education v 55 no 6 p 574ndash580

Marshall SP 2010 Re-imagining specialized STEM academiesIgniting and nurturing decidedly different minds by designRoeper Review v 32 no 1 p 48ndash60

McConnell DA Steer DN and Owens KD 2003 Assessmentand active learning strategies for introductory geology coursesJournal of Geoscience Education v 51 no 2 p 205ndash216

OrsquoBannon B 2001 How do I write an objective lthttpitcut-kedubobannon writing_objectiveshtmlgt (July 2010)

Overbaugh RC Schultz L nd Bloomrsquos taxonomy lthttpwwwoduedueducroverbauBloomblooms_taxonomyhtmgt (August 2010)

Salend SJ 2009 Technology-based classroom assessmentsTeaching Exceptional Children v 41 no 6 p 48ndash58

Scholastic Climate Change lthttpteacherscholasticcomles-sonplans exploreyourearthlesson1htmgt (July 2010)

Science Education Resource Center 2010 How to teach withGoogle Earth lthttpserccarletonedusplibrarygoo-gle_earthhowhtmlgt (July 2010)

Sherman-Morris K Morris J and Thompson K 2009 Intro-ducing teachers to geospatial technology while helpingthem to discover vegetation patterns in Owens ValleyCalifornia Journal of Geoscience Education v 57 no 1 p64ndash72

Streitwieser B Light G and Pazos P 2010 Entering the com-munity of practitioners A science research workshop modelChange v 42 no 3 p 17ndash23

Vacca JS 2008 Using scaffolding techniques to teach a socialstudies lesson about Buddha to sixth graders Journal of Ado-lescent and Adult Literacy v 51 no 8 p 652ndash658

Wineburg S and Schneider J 2009 Was Bloomrsquos Taxonomypointed in the wrong direction Phi Delta Kappan v 91 no4 p 56ndash61

J Geosci Educ 59 99ndash105 (2011) Google Earth Assessment 105