The Google Cultural Institute - an Amazing Resource for Educators

If you can't take your students on field trips  to view artwork in museums, visit other countries to view heritage sites, or show them original archives, bring the world to your students in your own classroom.

Google Cultural Institute is an amazing resources that is broken up into three sections:  Art Project, World Wonders Project, and Archive Exhibitions (Historic Moments).  

I learned about the Google Cultural Institute a few months ago, but didn't really explore it in depth until after I attended the Google Teacher Academy last month in December.  I think it is a wonderful tool for teachers to use in their classes.  Below, I have described the resources available and included some screen shots and Google created intro videos to introduce the different parts of the Google Cultural Institute. 

I believe that this is a great tool that can be utilized in every subject area with a little creativity. It's pretty obvious how history and art teachers would use it.  But math teachers could have students calculate the angles on historical buildings using the World Wonders Project.  World language teachers could have students visit historical sites or look at artwork created in the countries that students are learning about.   Science teachers could have students learn about ecosystems and environments, or the see some the effect of the nuclear bombs in the Historic Moments Collection.  English teachers can have their students visit the Globe Theatre. 

Check it out.  The Google Cultural Institute is an amazing tool that can bring the world to your students.

Art Project

Art Project has brought "street view" inside museums around the world, which you can access from any computer in an internet equipped classroom.  

Walk the floors of the Museum of Modern Art and discover Van Gogh's Starry Night,

look at the entire painting,

and even zoom in to see the brush strokes.

You can even create galleries of work and compare two pieces of artwork at once.  The museum exhibits not only include paintings, but textiles, statues, etc.  And, the educator page gives you some lesson ideas and you create your own quizzes.

World Wonders Project

The World Wonders Project brings World Heritage Sites to life with Google Street View and 3D Modeling.   

View images and street views of amazing historical and important sites from around the world and learn about the history of each location.

Visit the World Wonders Project education page for resources and lessons for educators.


Historic Moments

Explore online exhibitions (including photos, documents, videos, etc.) detailing the stories behind significant moments in human history.  Learn about Nelson Mandela, Marie Curie, the bombing of Hiroshima, and much more.  

Search
The search feature is great.  It allows you to search for any topic or historical figure and find information, videos, photos, and other media.  The LIFE photo collection is included in the Google Cultural Institute too.

Learn How to Use the Google Cultural Institute
Watch this quick video to learn how to use the Google Cultural Institute website.