Resources

Google Earth - Google is a fun, and free, way for students to explore our planet and learn geography. It does require downloading and installing onto the computer, but it gives a fascinating view of the Earth's cities and land features. Take a 3D tour of the Grand Canyon or Mount St. Helens, or zoom in on Austin and try to find your house or St. Louis School.

NASA World Wind - NASA World Wind is similar to Google Earth, but takes it further. The controls are not as easy to use and it takes a fairly powerful computer, but the added features are pretty spectacular. Add on features for earth include not just place names and borders, but also flags of the countries, natural disasters, animations of events, the Lewis and Clark Trail, and much more. This free software also includes zoom-able views of Venus, Mars, the Moon, Jupiter, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Place names and space vehicle landing locations are also available on some of these planets.