I’ll start this blog post by stating the obvious, I love Google Earth and Google Maps. Today, Google gave me another reason to love Google Earth. Starting today, the public gallery of layers now includes a 3-D fly-over tour of Ancient Rome. You can explore more than 6000 3-D drawings of buildings in Ancient Rome. At each placemark in the tour you can explore historical information. The short video below shows you how to access this new layer as well as some of the things that can done with the Ancient Rome layer.

Applications for Education
The Ancient Rome layer is obviously useful for history teachers, but could also be useful for literature teachers. Literature teachers may want to provide their students with some visual perspectives of stories that students are reading.

Google Earth is useful in so many content areas because of its flexibility. Over the course of the last twelve months I’ve seen, and shared with readers, examples of using Google Earth in History, English, Math, and Science classrooms. If you feel confident developing curriculum using Google Earth, you may want to consider entering the Ancient Rome 3-D Curriculum Competition. Winners receive a prize package that includes a MacBook and $500 gift cards to Target or Office Depot.