Where On Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? - A Great Geography Game

The theme song for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? is an earworm for those of us who grew up in the 80's or early 90's. And thanks to Google's new partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, we can now share the fun of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? with our kids.

This morning Google launched the first installment of Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? The game can be played in the web version of Google Earth, on the iOS version of Google Earth, and on the Android version of Google Earth. The best experience will be found on the web version by simply going to g.co/carmensandiego.

Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? isn't exactly like the old version that you might have played from floppy disks, but it's fun and could be a good way for kids to apply their knowledge of geography.

To play Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? simply go to g.co/carmensandiego and start "interviewing" witnesses by clicking on the magnifying glass. When you click on an interviewee Google Earth will automatically zoom-in on the location of the interview. Just like in any other use of Google Earth, you can zoom and pan around the area of detail. After talking to the witnesses, use the information to make your best guess as to where you should fly to next to pursue Carmen Sandiego. Good luck!

Live Q&A Recording

This afternoon I hosted a live Q&A session on my YouTube channel in which I answered questions that had been submitted over the last week. Unfortunately, due to the widespread issues with Facebook accessibility that popped up today, I was not able to broadcast on Facebook. So if you were looking for the broadcast on Facebook, I'll have to get your question next week. The recording of the YouTube live stream is embedded below.

How to Make Appointment Slots in Google Calendar

All of this week I'm working with teachers in a charter school to help them improve their use of educational technology. Throughout the week I'm meeting with teachers individual and in small groups. To schedule the meetings I created appointment slots in Google Calendar. Using appointment slots in Google Calendar makes scheduling very easy compared to trying to use email, a spreadsheet, or even a shared Google Calendar. Watch this video to learn how you can make appointment slots in your Google Calendar.


The benefit of using appointment slots over simply sharing a Google Calendar is that no one can accidentally write over or remove a scheduled meeting.

Three Hands-on Pi Day Lessons

Tomorrow is Pi Day. If you're looking from some Pi Day activities to do with your students, take a look at the following three activities available on Exploratorium's Science Snacks site. I have provided brief summaries of each activity below. Click the links for the activities to read the full directions and materials list for each activity.

Pi Toss is an activity in which students toss tooth picks is a physical recreation of Buffon's Needle Problem.


Pi Graph is an activity in which students graph the diameter and circumference of a series of objects in order to see the linear relationship between any circle’s diameter and circumference.

Cutting Pi is an activity in which students use string to measure the circumference of an object and then attempt to cut the diameter of the object from the string as many times as possible. In other words, it's a physical way to divide the circumference by the diameter.