The picture that you see to the left is the one that took a few years ago while driving across North Dakota with my dog Morrison (I hadn’t adopted Max, yet). Since then I’ve used the picture a bunch of times as part of an introductory activity in my Google Earth & Maps workshop. In the activity I obscure the “Rugby, ND” part of the picture and ask people to use Google Earth to find the center of North America. From there I ask them to switch into Google Earth Streetview to find the monument that Morrison is sitting in front of.

This is not a terribly difficult research assignment, but it is a nice activity that helps first-time Google Earth users learn about the navigation features of Google Earth. Of course, the activity can be modified by using other pictures from the other six continents on Earth.

If you want to use the picture above for a simple geography lesson, you may do so. Click it to open it in full-size before downloading.