Google Earth combines satellite imagery, geographic data and search capabilities to create a virtual globe application that is educational, free and fun. Users can navigate anywhere on the planet and click on "placemarks" that contain additional HTML data displayed in small popup balloons. These placemarks can contain anything related to a geographic location on the planet.
Mt. St.Helens
Visualization is just one aspect of GIS. For more detailed analysis of geospatial data educators and students may want to try Arc2Earth to enhance Google Earth capabilities.
To the left is a screen shot of an Arc2Earth analysis of Hurricane Katrina using NASA imagery and Google Earth.
Another GIS option for K-12 Educators is ArcExplorer from the Environmental Systems Research Institute
(ERSI).
ArcExplorer-Java Edition for Education (AEJEE) is a free, lightweight tool for exploring geographic data available for both Windows-based and Macinstosh computers.