My hope is that this would fit into an integrated curriculum under both Social Studies and Science. One of my passions during my undergraduate work was in comparative analysis of ancient Chinese and Olmec culture. I did a lot of work with art, materials, and common symbols. My idea for a lesson is to have students use both google earth and google sky to examine the temple complexes at Angkor Wat and Giza. Angkor Wat is layed out to represent the Draco Constellation and the Pyramid complex at Giza is layed out to reflect Orions belt. I would want students to work in small groups to understand why the following items are important:

1) Why would people of ancient cultures want to build an earthly representation of the heavens?
2) Where these places religious centers or did were they used for observation purposes? Were they used for both?
3) What can be learn about the movement of heavenly bodies between the era in which these complexes were built and now (i.e. planetary wobble, the change of orbits of other planets, etc)?