Our Diverse Planet
Girls in STEM at Tulane (GiST)
This Google Earth exercise is designed for 5-7th graders. All that is needed is a computer and Google Earth, which is free and can be downloaded here. We have used this in a one hour outreach activity during science mini-camps on Tulane Campus. You could bring this into schools, but you would need to make sure the correct software and kmz file were loaded before the activity. This was originally designed by Jordan Adams when she was a PhD student at Tulane. It has been edited a bit by Nicole Gasparini and Nathan Lyons. Please contact Nicole if you have any questions. Make it your own!
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The exercise introduces kids about how landscapes are formed and how they change through time. There are a bunch of marked places to look at in Google Earth, some with the specific goal of using the time slider to see how they have changed through time. The notes give ideas of what to talk about and some background on the location. The ppt is mostly just pictures that we have used as an intro.
Our Diverse Planet KMZ file (email me for this, I'm not sure how to post it here.)
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Notes for Our Diverse Planet activity
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Example Powerpoint
Great science books for young readers.
These are books I read with my kids, or have read in classrooms with kids ages 5 - 6.
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Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13, by Helaine Becker,
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250137524
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How to Code a Sand Castle, by Josh Funk
https://www.joshfunkbooks.com/how-to-code-a-sandcastle
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Plate Tectonics Activity
This is from the USGS, and designed for older kids, but I did the puzzle with a short powerpoint with kindergarteners and it worked great.
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https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/vsc/file_mngr/file-139/This_Dynamic_Planet-Teaching_Companion_Packet.pdf