A free 3D globe for your classroom

earthglobe.app is a 3D globe of the Earth that runs in the browser. Teachers can put it on the projector in a few seconds, and students can use it on their own devices without making an account. It is free, it has no ads, and nothing your students do on the globe is sent to us.

Open the globe in Classroom mode · Browse the lessons

Why teachers use it

Free, with no login. Nobody needs an account, an email address or a password. Students open the page and start.
No student data sent to us. The globe does not ask for names or any personal details. If students mark countries in Places mode, those marks are saved only in their own browser and never leave the device. The site sets no cookies. We count visits in total (for example, how many people opened a page), without personal profiles. Details are on the privacy page.
No ads, no pop-ups, no outside widgets. Nothing on the screen competes with the lesson.
Classroom mode for the projector. One button makes the globe fill the screen with large text and no clutter, which works well on a projector or smart board.
Works on school devices. Runs in any up-to-date browser, on computers, tablets and phones. It loads small images first (about 80 KB) and only fetches sharper ones when you zoom in, which helps on a busy school network.
Real data, with sources. The surface is NASA's Blue Marble image, the night side shows NASA's Black Marble city lights, borders come from Natural Earth, and each country card lists its sources. See About and sources.

What students can do on the globe

Turn and zoom. Drag with a finger or the mouse, pinch or scroll to zoom. The arrow keys turn the globe too, and the + and − buttons zoom.
See day and night right now. In Satellite mode the line between day and night is worked out from the current time, so the lit half matches the real Sun at this moment.
Switch views. Satellite, Night (city lights), Borders (every country in its own colour), Places (mark countries) and Distance (measure between two points).
Look up a country. Type a country or city into the search box and the globe flies there. Tap a country to see its flag, capital, population and area.
Measure distances. Tap two points to get the shortest distance over the Earth's surface, in miles and kilometers.
Compare true sizes. The true size tool lays two countries on top of each other at their real size.

Teacher tools you can use today

You can send students straight to the right view with a link:

earthglobe.app/#country=BR opens the globe on Brazil (use any two-letter country code).
earthglobe.app/#mode=night opens the night view with city lights.
earthglobe.app/#classroom=1 opens Classroom mode.
earthglobe.app/#quiz=continent&level=easy opens the class quiz. Pick countries, capitals, continents or oceans, and easy, medium or hard.
earthglobe.app/#teach=timezones opens teacher mode on one theme: timezones, daynight, continents, lines or truesize.
earthglobe.app/#time opens the time slider, for day and night on any date and time of the year.

Put the link on the board or in your class page, and everyone starts in the same place.

Ready-made lessons

Each lesson has learning goals, a suggested age range, how long it takes, step-by-step globe activities, questions for students with an answer key, and an extension.

Questions teachers ask

Is it really free?

Yes. There is no paid version, no trial and no sign-up.

Do students need an account or an email address?

No. They open the page and use it.

What data do you collect about students?

None that identifies anyone. The globe does not ask for names or details. Countries marked in Places mode stay in the student's own browser. We count page visits in total with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and does not follow people across sites. Read the privacy page.

Will it work on our Chromebooks and iPads?

It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install. It needs a reasonably up-to-date browser with 3D graphics (WebGL) turned on, which is standard on current Chromebooks, iPads and laptops.

Is the satellite image live?

No. The surface is a cloud-free NASA composite and the city lights are NASA's 2016 night map. What is live is the line between day and night, which follows the current time.

Can I suggest a lesson or report a mistake?

Yes. Email info@earthglobe.app.