This is a pathfinder in a search for resources to be used in an inquiry project on historical landmarks for my grade 4/5 Challenge class.
I want to find reliable resources that could provide information that will be accessible to my grade 4 and 5 students who have some basic understanding of research but still need guidance in finding information online. I recognize there will likely be bias as to which landmarks may be highlighted depending on the resources I look at so I will aim to have inclusions from around the world. I also want to ensure there is a variety of media to pique the interest of my students and get them looking at landmarks from around the world.
1 Kids-World-Travel-Guide Top 10 Famous Landmarks
I began by doing a google search for “famous world landmarks for kids”. My goal was to see what was out there in general. My first hit was a list from Kids-World-Travel-Guide.com. I liked the attention grabbing list and succinct presentation of information. The site also allowed for further exploration if students have an interest in the topic. A quick look at their “About” page lists the creator as an educator in South Africa but also shows a list of contributors who are travellers and students. There is an open invitation to contact the site for potential collaboration in having students build and add pages, I like their message of “See the world through children’s eyes” and “Create a more peaceful world through increased understanding of other people and cultures.” Could be further potential to look into depending on how our project goes.
2 New7Wonders of the World
The list of landmarks in the first resource reminded me of a project from when I first started teaching, the New 7 Wonders global voting campaign that occurred in the mid-2000’s. I had not looked at that project in many years but I remembered how my gifted students then were really engaged in researching and arguing for the Wonders they felt should win. I also remembered the site as being very well laid out as information had to be provided for the general public to vote for their top choice. I was happy to see the website was still up and the information is accessible, updated, and easy to follow. The finalists list of 21 landmarks on the Wonder Map is exactly what I was hoping for. There has since been another campaign for 7 Natural Wonders and a new campaign currently underway for the 7 Symbols of Peace! Potential to look into further as the project develops.
3 WBO Student
Having looked in the public domain, I then turned to resources offered by my district. With having the names of some historical landmarks in mind, my students could now make use of the World Book Online database subscription from my school district and available for students to access from school or at home. Plugging in several of the names of landmarks yielded sufficient results that I think students will be able to readily gather information from this vetted and reliable source.
4&5 Virtual Tours & Google Earth
During the remote learning phase of Covid-19. I had been collecting many resources to help teachers at my school, virtual field trips and tours were being offered by many organizations. I had come across an article in The Guardian that I bookmarked because its focus was on virtual tours of famous landmarks. I now have some time to check it out. The offerings are a wonderful intro to places most of my students will not have had experience with, being able to see it so visually will appeal to a lot of them. I could see that several of the tours were from Google Maps and Google Earth, this brought to mind an author visit several years ago. The author, John Wilson, talked about the extensive use they made with Google Earth for researching areas of Spain; he was able to “visit” cities and towns to add authenticity to his writing without leaving home. I added the web app as a resource so that students could walk along in street view. Google has created many collections/treks of their own of notable places that would be good opportunities for exploration as well.
I plan to look through the library book collection to pull applicable titles that I will add to the materials for student exploration… I think this is shaping up well as a beginning.
Graff, R. Top 10 Famous Landmarks in the World | Most Famous Man-made Monuments. Retrieved 27 July 2020, from https://www.kids-world-travel-guide.com/top-10-famous-landmarks.html
Overview – Google Earth. (2020). Retrieved 27 July 2020, from https://www.google.com/earth/
Wilson, A. (2020). 10 virtual tours of the world's most famous landmarks. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/mar/30/10-best-virtual-tour-worlds-most-famous-landmarks
Wonders | New7Wonders of the World. (2007). Retrieved 27 July 2020, from https://world.new7wonders.com/wonders/
World Book. (2020). Retrieved 27 July 2020, from https://worldbookonline.com/
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