Everyone knows that this years Winter Olympics are in Vancouver with some of the events being held up the road in the ski resort of Whistler. Nearly a year ago Google released over 1400 building of Vancouver to the 3D Building layer (I wrote about it at the time).
The Vancouver 3D Building layer offers a great opportunity for students to explore the city and to find out more about the venue for the games. You might even consider exploring Vancouver on foot using First Person Camera Mode or even driving a Milk Tuck around it using Monster Milk Truck?
Of course if Google Earth is a bit slow on your school network why don't you use Google Street View to explore the area or even compare what the Olympic venues look like on Streetview to what they look like on the Olympic news coverage
As well as the 3D Buildings of the city all of the 2010 Olympic venues are now available in 3D as well. The nine main venues have all been re-created with photo realistic quality right down to the ski lifts!
You can see a good Google Earth Tour of the Olympic Venues over on the Lat-Long Blog and this might also be something that you choose to re-create with your students. Its easy to make a Google Earth Tour (with voice) and embed it in a website and it would be a great way for children to report back on the Olympics or as a stimulus for creative writing.
More information on Google Earth Tours here.
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