Here’s a quick activity that you can do in your classroom to explore the topic of sustainable energy. It comes to us from Google.
Introduction
Ever wondered what happens when you send an email? How does an email travel from your computer to your friend’s smartphone across the country or around the world?
Take a journey with Gmail and find out. In this short video you will follow an email on its journey to see what happens once you send a message. Along the way, you will learn about some of Google’s efforts to minimize its impact on the environment.
Exploration
Take a journey through Google’s data centers by following an email along its path. Along the way, explore Google’s data centers with videos, photos and more. It all begins when you click send. Click on the image below to begin the online module.
Google Green
Google claims it is creating a better web that’s better for the environment. Google states, “We’re greening our company by using resources efficiently and supporting renewable power. That means when you use Google products, you’re being better to the environment…At Google, we’ve worked hard to minimize the environmental impact of our services. In fact, to provide you with Google products for a month, our servers use less energy per user than leaving a light on for 3 hours. If you add in our renewable energy and offsets, our footprint is zero. And we continue to find new ways to reduce our impact even further.”
Learn more about about Google Green here.
Educational Connections
Science – environment, sustainable energy, renewable energy, green
Geography – locate the nearest Google data center using Google Maps
Math – calculations regarding distance, time, rate
Language arts – write a sample email, follow the writing process to edit and re-write your email
Related articles
- Story of Send Shows You How Google Emails Get From Here to There (treehugger.com)
- Follow an email’s journey with Story of Send (gmailblog.blogspot.com)
- Google’s ‘Story of Send’ Explains Email (abcnews.go.com)
- Follow an email’s journey with Story of Send (googleblog.blogspot.com)
- Google Uncloaks ‘E-mail’s-Eye View’ of Data Center Empire (wired.com)
- Hitch a ride through Google’s cloud (news.cnet.com)
- Google traces the path of a single email (theverge.com)
