It is a far cry from the days of analog, cursive and education without the involvement of technological advances. The students of today are born into technology and have a deep understanding of how it works at a rapid speed.
Connie Haworth’s grade 6 class from Begbie View Elementary had their Extreme Environment science class where they were to infuse the lessons they were given, the knowledge they received as well as technology to create an interactive 3D model.
The kids were broken up into groups and given 8 different environments; Volcanic Region, Rocky Planets, Polar Region, The Desert, Ice Planets, Gas Planets, Caves and The Deep Ocean.
The kids were to design, create and paint the 3D model and then with a mini coding board (or switchboard) called Makeymakey by connecting the wires through the coding board, to each element within the 3D model. This would be connected to a ‘touch’ component on the model, where with the touch of your finger, it would send an electronic pulse through the 3D model, to the coding board and into a lap top that would automatically play an audio track with a pre-recorded message from the students explaining that particular subject.
The kids not only put all this together, they were also responsible for voice tracking, editing and programming the audio though Scratch which is editing software for students.
Mrs. Haworth explained to the Revelstoke Current just how fast the kids were to putting the two separate concepts together, “It came to them quite easily. I tried to keep ahead of them, but they are so savvy and so quick, they had the technology down.”
The grade 6 class were quite proud of their work and truly had a deep understanding of how to connect the dots and turn what would have been an otherwise, non-interactive diorama, into a technologically advanced 3D Model that answered the question: what is an extreme environment and why would we go there?
