Yes, it’s time for another one of my “The Best….” lists. one will highlight the websites I think are the best for teaching about geography.
As in my other lists, the criteria include that the sites don’t require any software download, and that they’re free, engaging, and accessible to English Language Learners.
Also, check out The Best Geography Sites For Beginning & Intermediate English Language Learners.
You can find all my many Geography-related lists at The Best Resources For Geography Awareness Week.
Here are my top picks for The Best Websites For Learning & Teaching Geography:
Two sites are good reference sites for students to use when they’re researching different countries. One is Fact Monster- Countries. The second one, though, I believe is slightly better because it appears to have more up-to-date data and it includes images. It’s called the World Info Zone.
Both of these sites offer an extensive collection of online videos from around the world. The two are Geobeats and National Geographic Videos.
The Best Sites Where Students Can Plan Virtual Trips
10 Websites For Virtual Sightseeing With Travel Videos is a nice list from The Make Use of blog.
D-Maps has a huge collection of map outlines to print for class use.
This Would Be A Nice Geography Assessment is a post I’ve written.
Maps Of The World has lots of free printable…maps.
The New York Times Learning Network has published an excellent post called All Over the Map: 10 Ways to Teach About Geography.
Urban Observatory lets you compare three major cities of your choice from around the world and map data about them in a number of areas (population density, open space, etc.). You can read more about it at Wired.
Here’s an example showing traffic at the same time of day:
40 maps that explain the world is a great collection from the Washington Post that may be the best geography site of the year. It links to another site called 40 Maps They Didn’t Teach You In School that has a number of other good maps. However, that second site also includes a few maps with topics and language that wouldn’t be appropriate for the classroom.
Now, The Post has published a sequel: 40 more maps that explain the world.
The Post published yet another exceptional collection titled 25 maps and charts that explain America today.
Google has just created a special site for the Street Views they’ve done in remote and/or unusual sites, including Burj Khalifa, Iqaluit, Mt. Everest, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Amazon Basin and the Kennedy Space Center. More are on the way.
11 Overlay Maps That Will Change The Way You See The World is from Business Insider.
‘Doing’ Geography Instead Of ‘Studying’ It is a post at my Education Week Teacher blog.
In it, four educators share their thoughts on teaching geography: Kelly Young, from whom I’ve learned more about teaching than from anyone else; Elisabeth Johnson, who is the best social studies teacher I’ve ever seen; middle school educator Lisa Butler; and Matt Podbury, who teaches Geography at an International School in France.
Lesson Plan | Analyzing Maps to Better Understand Global Current Events and History is from The New York Times Learning Network.
Six maps that will make you rethink the world is from The Washington Post.
TED-Ed has released a video and lesson titled “How North America got its shape.”
From Ptolemy to GPS, the Brief History of Maps is from Smithsonian Magazine.
Persuasive Cartography: How Maps are Used to Shape Our Beliefs is from Geo Lounge (thanks to Rick Wormeli).
Announcing a New Feature to Build Students’ Geography Skills comes from The New York Times.
Find All The NY Times Learning Network’s “Country Of The Week” Quizzes In One Place!
Maps That Changed Our World is a great interactive from The Library of Congress.
Seterra has long been a “go-to” Geography site, with zillions of engaging games and quizzes. They’ve recently added a new fabulous feature to their interactives – now, anyone – without registering – can turn any of their games/quizzes into custom ones and share its unique url address. All you have to do is click on the “Create Custom Quiz” link at the top of each of their interactives. What a great assignment for students to do! There are other tools that let you create custom Geography quizzes (you can find them at The Best Online Geography Games), but none are as easy to use as this new Seterra tool.
GOOGLE UNVEILS “IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD” FOR TRAVELING – VIRTUALLY
Infographic Of The Week: “Visualizing Countries by Share of Earth’s Surface”
Let me know if you think I’ve missed any particularly good geography sites.
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Thank you so much for these great sites. I’ve had fun exploring and bookmarking them and sharing them.
Vicki,
And thank you for your great blog!
Larry
Hey Larry! Thanks for the second hearty endorsement of our game! Don’t forget you can chat about strategy and compare scores with other Traveler IQ addicts in our travel forums
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager
To teach geography by following an ongoing “blog” written by a two adventurous (and fictional) teens –and voting where the protagonists should go next, try Globetracker’s Mission: Finding Dewey. The Google Earth files that accompany each episode are optional, though they are great for those who do have access to this software. Globetracker is designed for upper elementary and middle school to learn basics and map skills as they “travel.” It is also aligned to standards.
Some of my teachers like to use http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm. They like how it increases levels and helps the students learn the location of countries/states.
Thanks for the great resources. I didn’t see this The Map as History (http://www.the-map-as-history.com/) on your list which I found and has been a fabulous resource for our History teacher. There are a few maps to see that are free, otherwise a subscription allows you to access all of the animated maps.
Thank you for this list of great websites, Larry. I’m sure my students will enjoy them when we speak about geography next time. 🙂
I’d also add BBC’s Bitesize Geography to it (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/). The explanations are great and there are tests to help students revise what they’ve learnt. Unfortunately the videos cannot be viewed in this part of the world.
All the best!
Cool stuff. Thanks. I’d like to recommend you another cool (in my opinion) website: http://eduworldmap.com. It’s for testing the knowledge of the world map. It contains a lot of geographical objects and many options that make learning very interesting and not boring.
What an awesome resource you have provided for geography teachers! Thank you! I recently wrote a children’s geography picture book to help get younger children excited about geography and I uploaded it on youtube to enable free access to teachers and kids. If there’s a chance you could share the link with everyone it would be awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uX1JRpkLWs
or one can always just search youtube by its title, “Geography Studies with Animal Buddies” It’s definitely geared for PreK through 4th or 5th tops.
I’m looking for an online world and US map that allows students to fill color online in google. My school is moving toward all online google based resources. No more printing and coloring maps. If I want students to create choropleth maps online, do you have any suggestions?
Not sure – maybe check out my Best Map-making sites list?
Larry, here’s another resource to check out: http://geohackergame.com
This is a free unique high-end game that uses graphics, sounds, videos and interactive maps to teach geography and world literacy. Suitable for ages 8 and up. The game is still under development but very playable right now. Come help us shape the game or just join in the fun.