Google Earth's Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Who remembers this game? I actually was an 80s kid, so mine came in a box with a World Almanac (!) and several huge discs for the Apple IIe. It looked like this:



See video

First of all, show that video to your students to elicit laughs, questions and comments. There are also YouTube samples of the 90s Carmen Sandiego game and PBS TV Show (with the inescapable theme song). After my time, sadly.

THEN, check out this amazingly cool overlay on Google Earth developed with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (on full Chrome, laptop or Chromebook, or in the iOS Google Earth app under the Voyager menu). This Google Earth version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego brings you through a simplified version of the game, and you can use for language underpinnings such as:
-identifying category items (continents and cities)
-spatial concepts
-making inferences
-describing (places, maybe with the EET)
-using research tools

You can zoom in on landmarks in the view window, but interacting with the menu will kick you out of the game. I'd recommend using this game as a way of teaching students to use tabs:
Tab 1- Run the game
Tab 2- Run Google Earth to get further info about the landmarks (Wikipedia articles appear- don't attack me, I know Wikipedia is not good for research, but it is good for general semantic knowledge about any topic)
Tab 3- use for research related to the clues

Enjoy the game- use it a lot and maybe they will make another one!

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