Take your upper elementary or middle school students on a Virtual Field Trip to the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. Students will use Google Earth and multiple print and digital sources to quickly draw information to answer questions pertaining to the different geographic locations.
 
Students will complete this activity digitally using Google Slides.
 
Students will learn about and virtually explore the following:
Mount Everest
Great Barrier Reef
Paricutin
Rio de Janeiro
Northern Lights
Grand Canyon
Victoria Falls
 
This resource is aligned to the Common Core Standards, as well the Washington State Social Studies Standards for grades 5-8.
 
Students begin by reading a one page passage on their destination to build background knowledge before using the various features of Google Earth, and/or watching short video clips to learn more about their location. Google Earth offers 360 degree views that are amazing! Students will answer questions pertaining to what they explore and learn.
 
This lesson can be conducted over the course of a week, with students spending time exploring one natural wonder per day.
 
All answer keys are provided, and a grading rubric is included. This activity involves very little prep! Everything can be easily shared and completed digitally.
 
What’s Included:
Teacher Set Up Instructions
Grading Rubric
Google Earth Keyboard Short Cuts Reference Sheet
Reading Passages (one page reading passage each location)
Destination Sheets (includes all instructions and links and response questions)
Answer Keys
 
This resource in aligned with the following Common Core Standards:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.7 Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
 
This resource is also aligned to the new Washington State Social Studies Standards:
GEOGRAPHY 1: Understands the physical characteristics, cultural characteristics, and location of places, regions, and spatial patterns on the Earth’s surface.
Enduring Understanding: Knows that the use of tools (e.g., maps, globes, charts, graphs) is important to understanding the world around us.
G1.5.4 Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics
 
 
 
Enduring Understanding: (US) The United States is a geographically diverse nation with distinct physical and cultural regions whose characteristics have impacted the nation.
G1.6-8.5 Explain and analyze physical and cultural characteristics of places and regions in the United States.
G1.6-8.6 Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics.
 
 
 
GEOGRAPHY 2: Understands human interaction with the environment.
Enduring Understanding: Knows that the human-environment interactions are essential aspects of human life in all societies and they occur at local-to-regional scale. Human actions modify the physical environment and, in turn, the physical environment limits or promotes human activities
G2.5.3 Explain how the cultural and environmental characteristics of places change over time.
G2.6-8.6 Analyze how the environment has affected people and how people have affected the environment in the United States in the past or present.