7th Grade Texas Revolution: Create Google Map Trip and Google Earth Placemarks

Student Directions

Associated with the Learning.com lesson; Mapping

The year is 2021. Your Skydiving troop comprised of friends from the Klein area has been asked to participate in the 185th Anniversary of Texas’ Independence by skydiving and landing with a giant Texas flag on the San Jacinto Battlegrounds. You have just finished a jump in George West, Texas and you will be driving to the San Jacinto Monument to make this jump. You and your friends decide that as long as you are making the trip, you might as well remind yourselves a little about the Texas Revolution along the way. As you talk with each other, you come up with the following locations that you remember were important to the Texas Revolution.

  • San Felipe, TX
  • San Antonio, TX
  • Goliad, TX
  • Washington on-the-Brazos State Park
  • Gonzales, TX
  • And of course you will be ending at the San Jacinto Monument State Park.
  1. Using Google Maps, create a path that will take your group from George West, Texas to the San Jacinto Monument State Park stopping at the areas above.
  • Be sure to select “Get directions.”
  • Once you see the map re-order the stops so you do not go backward along your path and ensure the shortest total driving time or the shortest distance traveled. You can reorder the destinations in Google Maps by clicking and dragging the green letter identifiers on the left up or down into different positions.
  • Test to see whether it’s shorter in time or distance to go from George West to San Antonio and then Goliad, or to go from George West to Goliad and then San Antonio.
  • Take a screenshot of the Google Map with the order of the stops on the left, and paste it onto a Word document or PowerPoint slide telling the distance and time the trip will take. Save this document to your N-Drive.
  1. As you travel, you want to remember what was historically significant about each stop. You will use Google Earth to create and save placemarks about each of the stops along the way so everyone on the skydiving team can remember certain facts about the Texas Revolution in case they get interviewed by the media about the trip.
  2. Open Google Earth, and create a folder in My Places to hold all the placemarks. Right-click on My Places, add a folder titled Skydiving Trip.
  • In the Search window in Google Earth, type in the first location you’ll stop at after George West.
  • Put a placemark (little yellow pushpin) on the place. Name the location, and in the large description window, type a couple sentences describing why that location was important to the Texas Revolution.
  • Add a placemark for each place you will stop, and include pertinent information about the place in the description window.
  • When you search for San Jacinto Monument, select the one on Monument Circle.
  • Ensure that all your placemarks are displayed in the Places window within Google Earth and are placed in your folder. If they are not in your folder, left-click, hold and drag them in.
  1. Once you get to the final destination, the San Jacinto Monument, your skydiving team and the pilot will determine when you will make the jump. The pilot tells you that you will need to give him the GPS coordinates of the Monument to let him know when he needs to tell you to jump.
  2. Add a placemark for the San Jacinto Monument. Include a couple sentences about it in the description window.
  3. Notice that the placemark gives the exact GPS coordinates. They can also be seen at the bottom of the Google Earth window.
  4. Write down the GPS coordinates of the Monument on the Word document or PowerPoint slide that contains the screenshot of the Google Map.
  1. Save the folder of placemarks by right-clicking on the folder to select Save Place As… Save it to your N-Drive. It will be a .kml or .kmz file.
  2. On March 2, 2021, weather-permitting, you and your skydiving team will make history as you skydive with a Texas flag and land in the San Jacinto Monument Park. Congratulations!

Technology Applications TEKS

  • 6A; define and use current technology terminology appropriately.
  • 6D; understand and user software applications, including selection and using software for a defined task
  • 6J; use a variety of local and remote input sources.
  • 2B; communicate effectively with multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
  • 3B; use and evaluate various search strategies including keywords and Boolean operators
  • 3D; process data and communicate results
  • 5B; practice ethical acquisition of information and standard methods for citing sources.

Social Studies TEKS

  • 7.3C; explain the issues surrounding significant events of the Texas Revolution, including the Battle of Gonzales, William B. Travis's letter "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World," the siege of the Alamo and all the heroic defenders who gave their lives there, the Constitutional Convention of 1836, Fannin's surrender at Goliad, and the Battle of San Jacinto
  • 7.1A; identify the major eras in Texas history, describe their defining characteristics, and explain why historians divide the past into eras, including …Revolution and Republic; …
  • 7.1C; explain the significance of the following dates: … 1836, Texas independence; …
  • 7.9A; locate the Mountains and Basins, Great Plains, North Central Plains, and Coastal Plains regions and places of importance in Texas during the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries such as major cities, rivers, natural and historic landmarks, political and cultural regions, and local points of interest;

Michael Read • adapted by Mary Beth Kreml • Klein ISD

Page 1 of 3 • Updated June 2012