Global Data Sets in Google Earth

Someone shared kmlfactbook.org at Pete&C.  I looked at it at the moment and had totally forgotten about it.  Then, as I was getting caught up with my twitter feed, I saw many people have been tweeting about it.  So I took a second look.  This is an incredible tool for Social Studies teachers.  I am actually a Technology Education teacher but I am planning to use this when I teach about energy. 

kmlfactbook lets you view global data sets in Google Earth or with the Google Earth browser plug-in.  You can view everything from birthrates to energy consumption to internet users.

First, you choose the category and the data set you want to view.  There are seven categories:  People, Economy, Transport, Military, Geography, Government, and Communications.  

 Once you have picked the data, you can click "Preview in Map". This will show the data in the map.

   Then, if you click on a country, the data window will appear.

You can also click the "Download KML file" button to save the data file and open it directly in Google Earth.  Now, you can save it for later use without an Internet connection.  This will open it under your temporary places.

If you want to add it to your places, simply drag it to your "My Places" and rename it.

Now, you can have a bunch of data preloaded to show to your classes.