Google Maps - A Field Trip to Math and Science Musems in New York

For this assignment,we were asked to use Google Maps to create a fieldtrip for our students. I decided to take my Algebra 1 students on a field trip to visit some of the well equiped and educative Math and Science Museums in New York.

                  What I did

For this partcular trip I chose sixteen museums whose focus are on math and science namely,
      
• Brookhaven National Lab Science Museum
• Buffalo Museum of Science
• Center for Science Teaching & Learning
• Dolan DNA Learning Center
• Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science
• Long Island Museum of Science and Technology
• Long Island Science Center
• Museum of the Earth
• Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences
• New York Botanical Garden
• New York Hall of Science
Roberson Museum and Science Center
• Rochester Museum & Science Center
• Schenectady Museum
• Sciencenter
• The Discovery Center


I then used Google Maps to create a layout of these museums.One of the benefits of using Google Maps is that it provides driving directions,distance and time estimation (duration) for the trip.After creating my Google Map,I used the snip tool to get a picture of my map.

        
  What I learned and how I will use it

Field trips offer the sort of enriching experience that is considered central to successful education. 
In their book "Field Trips : A guide for planning and conducting educational experience", Krepel and Duvall (1981) defined field trips as  "a trip arranged and undertaken for educational purposes, in which the students go to places where the materials of instruction may be observed and studied directly in their functional setting...".
 Traditional field trips usually involve a teacher directing or constructing an event to produce similar student observations and experiences. Field trips engage and even entertain students, helping to make educational experience more relevant, memorable and meaningful.
I believe this assignment addresses the second standard of the ISTE-NETS,since this field trip will provide me the opportunity to design and develop authentic learning expriences for my students to incorporate the content knowledge gained in class with visual and practical real life experiences.
The following is a picture of my Google Map.