Class Time: Google's Trip Builder

Earlier this week I spent the day with a sixth grade class as they were learning how to use Google's Tour Builder for their geography project. The teacher that invited me in covered the content portion of their project while I helped by instructing the students on how to put their content into Tour Builder itself. It was a really fun collaboration! And, on the occasion that things didn't go as expected, I was able to back the teacher up and answer the students' questions.


If you aren't familiar with Google's Tour Builder, it uses Google Earth technology and enables the creator to pin point places on the globe and include multimedia and text about each location. Depending on the tour style you chose, the path is typically in sequence leading you from point a to point b to point c. But you can also have it go to all of the locations from a single hub. It is a really fun way for students to explore the world around them and gain context on their place within it.

Example from Google's Tour Builder

The highlight of the entire project is the final piece, which I will not have a direct part of. Last trimester I worked with a small group of sixth grade students for my first round of BE Bytes. It was a really fun experience. One of the many skills the students learned during the trimester was how to create and share their own screencasts. So, for the final step of the project, the students I had in class will be teaching their peers how to make a screencast of their tour. I'm super excited that my students took it on and can't wait to hear how it goes.

Interested in Google's Tour Builder or want me to come in and work with your students with it? All you need to do is make an appointment with me and I'll make it happen.