In this quick video you will learn how to use Google Search to easily calculate, graph, convert your information
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Mathematical and Graph Calculation
0:35 How to launch the calculator
0:56 How to get Google to graph simple and complex equations
Conversions
2:12 How to launch the Google conversion calculator
2:46 What units can be converted
3:14 Find real time weather in any location
Google Time
3:50 Set a timer
4:14 How to find the time in any location
TRANSCRIPT
Hi you are with Mike Reading from UsingTechnologyBetter.com and today I’m just going to show you number of really simple ways that you can use advance Google search tips to do a whole lot more than just your standard Google searches. Now we can use Google search to do a range of things. For instance, we can use Google to graph equations, calculate answers, tells us the temperature in different locations, do conversion and a whole range of things.
So to do this, we simply just follow these simple steps. Just say for instance you wanted your students to be able to bring up a calculator. Probably the simplest way to do that would be for them to just type in a simple mathematical calculation and you will see that a calculator opens up just here on the page and then you can always change those around and use this as your calculation tool.
If you wanted your students to be able to graph a calculation, they simply just need to type the equation into the search bar and then Google will graph it for them. So here is a quick example of what you can do with graphing. So I’m just going to drop a graph in here, you don’t have to type the keyword graph or anything, just type the equation in and hit enter and you will see that graph opens, you can zoom in on this different parts of the graph if you want to and you can have a little bit of interaction here as well in zooming different directions.
So this is great because what you could do is just simply change one of the values and then Google will instantly graph it and you are able to see how those changes are made. Now you can type in some really complex graphing equations and I’ll show you this one just for interest. All right, now this one we’ve got square root and all sorts f things in here so I’m just going to graph it and there we have a lovely heart shape just for you guys.
All right, so another way that we can use Google to do some really cool features is conversations. Now you might have two schools that are working or collaborating on a document and maybe they are using two different units of measurement or maybe your students are just learning units and so we can convert anything. We simply just type convert and then we need to put some unit in and then Google will open up a calculator for us.
So let’s just say, let’s convert 30 degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit and here is our little calculator and we can change this, what would it be if it was 40 degrees Celsius well that would be 104 degrees Fahrenheit so you can make those sorts of changes on time, if you wanted to you can change your different units of measurements just here as well and by the way, you can change from temperature to length and mass, speed, all sorts of things just here.
One of the fun ones you might want to like to do with your students is digital storage and that’s quite of an interesting one there to bits to bytes and so on. So you might also want to convert finances, so this one you might just want to convert Australian dollars to US dollars for instance, if we do that… well here’s our equation. One Australian dollar is worth 96 US cents at the moment.
We can also do this with weather. So you don’t have to go to all these different whether apps, all you need to do is simply type in weather and then the place that you would like to know the weather in, so let’s just say we wanted to know the weather in Sydney today, so right now it’s 22 degrees in Sydney, we can see a bit of a forecast and so on. I can change that to any city I want, so let’s just say New York. Right now its 10 degrees in New York or for those of you who want to know Fahrenheit, that’s 50 degrees Fahrenheit here.
So let me just show you one last thing around how we use Google for time. There are two ways we can do this. We can set a timber that you might want to display to the class and to do that, you simply just type in timer into the search bar and here is our timer with hours, minutes and seconds and you just click start and a little buzz will go off at the end of that so that can be really cool.
The other thing that we can do inside Google search around time is we can find out what time it is in any part of the world. Now to do this, you simply just type in time and then the location. So just say I wanted to know what the time was in New York right now, I can just type in New York and here it will tell me at the top its 12:39 AM New York time, I can change that to say London and here it is here ready for us to go.
So you can find out the different time zones and how they work and your students can try and predict and all sorts of things and then check their answers using Google search. Now if you tied that back into using Google forms and the time function in that to answer questions that would be fantastic.
So if you are using Google search to do creative and innovative things with your students, we’d love to hear about it. If you’d like to leave a comment in the comment section wherever you find this video whether that would be on the GoogleAppsforEDU.com blog or on our YouTube channel or maybe you are even watching this video through iTunes. If you could just leave us a short comment about what you are doing with your students, we’d love to see that.
Until next time, thanks for watching.
