Tell students they will continue to use aerial images in Google Earth to identify land features in the Lehigh Valley area.
 

Ask students: How can you identify objects in aerial photographs? Review elements can be used to identify objects in aerial photographs: tone, size, shape, texture, pattern, shadow, site, and association. Have students refer to the handout: Basic Elements of Aerial Photo Interpretation for review if needed.
 

Display the Lehigh Valley Features.kml file in Google Earth to the front of the classroom and instruct students to load this layer in Google Earth on their computers.
 

Instruct students to complete the Identifying Land Features in the Lehigh Valley Area Investigation Sheet. Emphasize that students need to provide a justification for their identification. They should look at the tone, size, shape, texture, pattern, shadow, site, and association elements in the aerial photograph for each location. Encourage students to refer to their handout, "Basic elements of aerial photographs" for reference materials.
 

 

- An effective instructional strategy to use with classes containing a high proportion of lower-level learners, students with disabilities, and/or English language learners is to complete each location one item at a time. Display the location image to the front of the classroom. Ask students in a whole classroom setting to describe specific features they observe in the image. Have a student point these out with a meter stick and discuss each one. Prompt students with questions as needed to observe specific features.