Day: March 27, 2011

Google Earth Trivia


So, this morning, I’m out at the dog park freezing while Jaimie is running around like a mad fool enjoying the company of Cain, Rusty, Ginger, and a bunch of other canines that I can’t recall their names.  I was thinking about a comment that @ashleyproud made on Twitter about the post that I had this morning about one of his students’ dog park petition.  In the post, I had attached a KMZ file that would take his students to the Broadway Dog Park in Google Earth.  He thought that his students would enjoy that.

Earlier in the week, Mr. Proud had talked about introducing his students to the power of Google Earth.  I still think it’s a phenomenal piece of software that shows the absolute best of Google innovation and how it inspires an inquisitive approach to the world about us.  I also figured that I wasn’t being the best of good will ambassadors for Essex County.  There’s so much interesting that you can discover about Essex County by a little zooming in and out and wandering around.

I would offer the following trivia questions for Mr. Proud’s class.  (or anyone else who wants to wander around starting at the dog park…)

  • Zoom out a bit – what do you see just to the south and east that would be of interest to another animal?
  • Zoom even further out and you’ll see a lake north of Essex County and another south of it but only one of them is a Great Lake – which one?
  • Navigate to the south and you’ll see the most southern part of Canada – what is it?
  • Go back to the dog park and zoom out a bit – just north of Essex County is another country?  What is it?  What would be the first city you would find in that country?
  • If you are driving by car, there are two ways to drive to that country – what are they?
  • Can you find Windsor International Airport?

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A Dog Park Connection


If you read my post “A Hashtag You Shouldn’t Ignore”, you’ll understand my passion for sending comments to student blogs when I have the opportunity.  Recently, I received an invitation from @ashleyproud to take a look at what his students had been doing.  He had written about it on his blog at “I Am One of Those People”.  He had been looking for a new way to engage his students in an activity involving persuasive writing.  He was trying a rather unique approach by having his students write petitions to try and influence their portion of the world.  I was intrigued and went and enjoyed reading some of their works.

You can see his class petitions by following any of these links.  Why not, and check out the writing and sign a petition or two?

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall11/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall12/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall1/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall19/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall14/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall15/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall10/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/mcdowall6/

One of the petitions, in particular, caught my fancy.  It was about the need to do some improvements to the local dog park.  This was of particular interest to me.  Every dog that I had ever owned had either been a beagle or daschund and I could tire them out with a short, brisk walk.  Recently, though, we adopted a German Shepherd cross and he seems to enjoy as much activity as we can provide.  It was also through him that I discovered just what a dog park is.  We’re fortunate to have one about 20 minutes away and Jaimie likes going every opportunity that he can get.  So, I got a real appreciation for the concept and empathized with Mr. Proud’s student and his desire to change things by completing the dog park in his neighbourhood.

The rest  of this post may only be of interest to Mr. Proud’s student so I won’t mind if you don’t finish.  What I’d like to do, as promised, is to show some pictures from our dog park.  I’m hoping that Mr. Proud passes this link along to his student so that the student can take a look at our park and make suggestions.

First of all, where is it?  I know from Twitter that Mr. Proud’s students are working with Google Earth.  So, here is a KMZ file so that the student can locate us.

Our dog, Jaimie loves to go to the dog park and run the area.  If you look at the park from Google Earth, you’ll see the parking lot, the smaller area for small dogs (and a time out area for big dogs) and the large area for the dogs.

DSCF3611

From the parking lot, you can see the forest behind and, of course, the garbage can.

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If you look the other way, you can see more of the forest and there’s an open trail for dogs and owners to use.

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Here’s the entrance.  There are two gates to make it safe to take your dog off leash.  There are rules for the park and two containers of plastic bags that owners are expected to use when necessary.

DSCF3614

Jaimie took off as soon as we let him off leash.  There is a tree in the middle of the park.  Also, you’ll see that there’s a bench for people to sit on.  In front of the bench, there’s a puddle.

DSCF3615

A dog park is a great place for a dog to sniff.  Here, Jaimie sniffs outside the smaller area.

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On the tree, some owners have hung a tribute to dogs that are no longer dog park users.

DSCF3619

Winter just passed and it’s now spring.  These trees outside the fence will be nice when they turn green.

DSCF3622

And, off in the corner, there’s a picnic table and both dogs and their owners use it as a place to rest.

So, that’s our dog park.  Do you have any suggestions for us?

I hope that your petition is successful.  Good luck.

That was fun.  Why don’t you search for comments4kids and help a colleague out by adding a comment here and there?

OTR Links for 03/27/2011


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.