HCSS: Geography: Homes & Habitats Project: Creating and Publishing a City Tour in Google Earth Using Tour Builder & Lonely Planet Guides You and your partner will use Tour Builder to tell the story of a city in the Eastern Hemisphere. You will fly the viewer around your city and will integrate text, images, and other media (e.g. audio and video) into your tour. You will get the Lonely Planet guide for your city from the local library, and use a variety of other digital sources. REQUIRED ELEMENTS 1 Absolute and relative location. Latitude and longitude, continent and country the city is in, and any other regional affiliations. Is it near any other major nations? Include elevation too. Additional maps may be included to help share this information 2 Climate & Vegetation. What type of weather might we expect at different times of year? How is this influenced by latitude, elevation, and/or proximity to water bodies? Are there any significant landforms or water bodies that could be important to the city? Pictures, charts, or graphs could be used. 3 Demography. What is the population? The surrounding population? The population density? The total fertility rate (TFR), Death Rate, Birth Rate in the country? What is the ethnic/racial/national origin breakdown for the country? Language(s)? Use the CIA World Factbook for this information. You may include charts or graphs. 4 History. Brief overview of the city s history. Was it part of any larger classical civilization? Explain. Are there any historical places (e.g. famous tourist destinations like archaeological sites or old buildings) still there that you can zoom in on in Earth and describe? If not, are there old sketches? 5 Government. What type of government (national and local) exists here? Is there any evidence in the city of these (e.g government buildings, monuments or statues, prisons, posted rules and regulations, etc.). 6 Economy. What evidence is there of economic activity? Types of businesses? Major industry? Types of jobs people have? Is there evidence of participation in the global economy? Local economy? Trade? Is there a lot of new construction?
7 Religion. Are there religious places in the city? Describe them and what religions exist there. Is there other evidence of religion? (e.g. names of places, rules, etc.) 8 Entertainment and culture. What would one be able to do in this city? Music, arts, dance, theatre, other performance? Are there parks, playgrounds, playing fields, zoos, malls? Restaurants? Are these things/places traditional to the region, or do they reflect foreign influence or immigration? Is there any other evidence of migration to the city? 9 Homes, schools and social class. Where do people live? Where do they go to school? Show us some of the structures. Does there seem to be a wide gap between rich and poor? Is there visible evidence of this that you can show in your tour? 10 Health and Sanitation. What evidence is there of organized efforts to provide healthcare? Hospitals? Clinics? How is sanitation dealt with in the city? Does it seem clean? Is there visible evidence that can be shown? 11 Resource use. What types of materials are visible in the city? Show us. Is there visible evidence of energy use and water use that you can show? 12 Technology. What types of technology are used in the city? What evidence can you show in the tour? Possible topics include modern airports and roads, internet technology, electricity, etc. 13 Environmental change. How have humans altered the natural environment, beyond just building structures? Are there dams, tunnels, canals, or other major infrastructure? 14 Pollution. Is there any visible evidence of this? Can you show it in the tour? Where is it from? Does it seem unusually severe? 15 Global Issues. Are there any other additional global issues that haven t already been addressed that are important in this city? Has there been recent or is there currently war or major civil unrest? Change in government? Racial or religious conflict or discrimination? Health Crises/Epidemics? Urban Sprawl? Extreme Poverty? Other?
Resources Tour Builder https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/ Tour Builder Tutorial http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/tutorials/tourbuilder.html MEL Michigan E Library To Order your Lonely Planet CIA World Factbook Google Search, Images, Earth, Docs HOW WILL THIS PROJECT BE MARKED? This is a large project that will require extensive research, writing, and thinking. You will likely need to learn many new concepts and vocabulary to address the required elements, and while we will address these in class while we do the project, students will also need to investigate these topics on their own. I created the project to address many of the Michigan geography GLCEs (at least 12!) these are the standards that 7th graders throughout the state of Michigan should explore in geographic thinking. Therefore, this project will constitute a substantial weight in the semester grade calculation, and should be a major priority. This is not a project that can be done in a night or even a week! Don t get behind. I will give you a lot of class time to work on it, but you will need to work on your own time as well. This project is due one week after we return from the big break in January: The grading criteria, below, has some flexibility built in due to the fact that every project will be on a different city and certain cities will have more information available for certain required elements than others. I don t expect every student to find every aspect of every element described above, or to find a visual or other piece of media to be able to add to the tour for each element. So, expect to get less than 4 out of 4 on some of the elements. That could be simply the effect of limited available information for that particular element. Any total score above 50 will be considered an E Exceeding grade level expectation, even though a maximum total score of 60 is technically possible. In theory that means that only getting a 3 out of 4 on every element would mean a total score of 45/50, which would be a 1 Meeting grade level expectation. This would be a very good score, of course. It could also mean that you could leave out 2 or 3 elements entirely and still score well, but that would of course mean doing extremely well on the 12 or 13 that you did complete. For each element, I will rate you on a scale of 0 4. Detailed descriptions of each of these categories follows.
City Tour Project Grading Criteria (for each element) 4 Advanced. All or almost all described aspects of the element are included with precision, clarity, depth, and appropriate vocabulary. 2 or more places in the city are zoomed in on in the Google Earth tour for the element, and are clearly linked to the element with a description. At least 2 types of additional media are included for the element (such as a picture, chart, quote, audio or video file), and this media is highly relevant to the element. 3 Good. Much of the described aspects of the element are included, and the descriptions are clear. 1 or more place in the city is zoomed in on in the Google Earth tour, and it is linked to the element with a description. There is one type of additional media are included for the element (such as a picture, chart, quote, audio or video file), and this media is relevant to the element. 2 Needs Work. Some aspect or aspects of the element are included, but either major aspects are not addressed, or the descriptions lack clarity or explanation of how they address the element. There is no additional media included, or the additional media isn t described or its relevance made clear. 1 Incomplete or poor quality. Some aspect of the element is included, but there is no or a very unclear description and relevance. There is no additional media, or the description of the media is of poor quality or clarity. 0 Missing element, plagiarized, or lacking in appropriate free to re use permissions.
GRADE SHEET STUDENT NAMES: CITY: URL of Tour: ELEMENT 4 3 2 1 1 Location 2 Climate & Veg. 3 Demography 4 History 5 Gov. 6 Economy 7 Religion 8 Entertainment & Culture 9 Homes & Schools 10 Health & Sanitation 11 Resource Use 12 Technology 13 Environmental Change 14 Pollution 15 Global Issues TOTALS Final Grade /50 E = 51 or higher, 1 = 42 50, 2 = 35 41, 3 = 34 and below Choosing your city
We (as a middle school) need to select a variety of cities from across the Eastern Hemisphere. Students should choose a city that they don t already know a lot about. More importantly, we don t want everyone choosing Rome or only English speaking countries because that will be easier. In addition, we need cities that will work in terms of ample available information and, more importantly, since most of the Eastern Hemisphere cities don t use English primarily, cities that have ample information and Google Earth functionality in English. The Lonely planet will help a lot here, too, so we need cities that have such resources. We will hold a lottery for city picks both order and continent, so as to ensure diversity of cities for the project. Once you get your number and continent, consider one of the following cities. They should be workable for the project, though some are harder than others. If you have another city (not on this list) you would like, you may choose it, pending my approval. CITIES Europe: London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Brussels, Rome, Venice, Florence, Rheims, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Lisbon, Barcelona, Lisbon, Seville, Geneva, Hamburg, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bucharest, Moscow, Minsk Asia: Istanbul, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Damascus, Basra, Beirut, Mecca, Tehran, Kabul, Samarkand, Irkutsk, Ulaanbaatar, Karachi, Islamabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Hanoi, Saigon, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta Africa: Cairo, Addis Ababa, Khartoum, Nairobi, Mogadishu, Tripoli, Algiers, Tunis, Marrakesh, Dakar, Accra, Lagos, Abuja, Douala, Capetown, Johannesburg, Harare, Dar es Salaam,