Play "SmartyPins" for a fun geography challenge!

"Smarty Pins" is a fun, interactive map game brought to you by Google. Yet another awesome thing Google has done. 

​The game works like this. You start with 1,000 miles. You are given questions. You answer each question by placing a 'pin' on the map. However far away your pin is from the answer, you subtract that many miles from your total. Once you run out of miles, the game is over. So the challenge is to see how many questions you can get through before you run out of miles. You can also score bonus miles if you answer questions quickly. At the beginning of the game, you can select a category or just play the game with all categories used randomly. 

-For each question, the map starts in the general area of where the answer is to help you out a bit, but you can zoom in/out and pan the map for a more accurate pin drop.

This could be a great challenge for kids play in a study hall or when they are done with their class work. It could be used as a "for fun" thing or raise the stakes a bit and make it a challenge. You could also use the concept of SmartyPins but have the students write questions and have their partner try to place the pin accurately on a map. 

Check it out! It's a fun way to pan the globe and learn about a variety of places.  

Create and publish Interactive Maps with Scribble Maps

Scribble Maps is a great mapping tool that allows the user to create interactive maps and share them via email, image, link, directory, or embed code. They can even be shared via social media such as Facebook and Twitter. You do not need to create an account to use Scribble Maps. To create a scribble maps, simply go to the site and click "create map." The maps you make are saved and you can access them and edit them via a password you set for each unique map. Each map is given a unique Map ID so you can share the ID and the password to allow others to colalborate on the map with you. Scribble Maps has a variety of tools such as: draw, scribble, lines, measurement, place markings, text, boxes, circles, etc. You can also upload pictures to place on your maps as well. Scribble Maps would be a great tool to use when planning a route or trip. It could be use in many ways in any history/geography class. Perhaps your students are reading a book that invovles some sort of trip or journey? You can use scribble maps to make that route come alive and see it in an interactive way. I encourage you to check out Scribble Maps and see how it could help you in your class.