About Globetracker's Mission, 2018-2019 Edition
Globetracker’s Mission, an episodic story in blog-style format, takes students in grades 2-6 on a journey around the world to learn standards-based geography, landforms, and map skills in an engaging, interactive context.
In each weekly episode, Geo and Meri, fictitious brother and sister techno-savvy teens, share new projector- or whiteboard-ready posts about their travels on a secret mission to find Dewey, the truth-sniffing dog. Each episode includes annotated vocabulary terms and interactive maps for practicing map skills or answering think-aloud questions the teens pose as they use today’s tools: text messaging, cell phones, and blog-posting. Readers vote at the conclusion of each post, telling Geo and Meri what to do next.
The first Globetracker's Mission took place during the 2007-2008 school year and garnered positive responses from teachers and many requests that we continue the mission and offer different versions in alternating years. This school year's mission will preview during September, then run from October, 2018, through the end of April, 2019. Review activities will be available around mid-mission and remain online through the end of June, 2019.
Geo and Meri's travels this year will cover seven continents, following reader votes to determine the next step each week. Over the course of seven months, classes using Globetracker’s Mission visit all seven continents and experience them through the thoughts and “snapshots” of Geo and Meri. We invite you to read and participate in their “blog” by voting each week.
Classrooms equipped with free Google Earth™ software can tour each step of the Mission using the Google Earth™ placemarker files that are available at the top of each episode. Teacher materials include extensive ideas for implementing Globetracker’s Mission as an engaging alternative to “old world” geography textbooks and worksheets. The carefully scaffolded content revisits and builds upon the standards-based concepts throughout the Mission. Teaching materials include review activities in both printable and interactive Flash format (ideal for an interactive whiteboard) and open-ended review and reflection questions for students to extend their understanding of geography.
Highlights from the 2018-2019 Mission:
- Classes with access to Twitter can also "follow" Geo and Meri's microblogging posts @SFLGlobeTracker. If you know how to tweet a message using Twitter, your class can even send them a question. Of course, Geo and Meri MAY be too busy to respond right away! (Shhh. Don't tell little sister Pandora about this, or she will torment Geo and Meri with tweets). Read more about Twitter on our tech info page.
- Explore TeachersFirst's CurriConnects book lists about Maps or Geographic Wonders to enrich your class's Globetracker adventure. CurriConnects offers book lists including interest grade levels, ESL levels, ISBN numbers, and more.
If you are a teacher, click here to learn more about ways you and your class can join in the “Mission,” what students will learn, and standards Geo and Meri will address along the way.
If you are a parent who would like to know more about ways you can participate in the “Mission” at home, click here.
Click here to start reading the Mission from the very beginning.
Click here to read the current episode.
Globetracker’s Mission is produced by TeachersFirst, a free, ad-free service of The Source for Learning, a non-profit educational technologies company.
To learn more about TeachersFirst's “mission,” click here.