360º of Loowit Falls

The payoff from the hike I did with my father in-law to Loowit Falls at the base of the Mount St. Helens crater. This is a 360º video that you can use your cursor to move around the entire screen. If you are using a mobile device you can just move your device around, and even put it into Google Cardboard mode and use a VR viewer to see the video in 3D.

#FVvr Filming Field Trip

While record rainfall has been occurring in the Pacific Northwest this winter, the sun has shown on our iTech students and #FVvr.  As we made our way to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site we had one element to deal with, the wind.  Sometimes you forget to account for certain things during projects, and this was one of those things.  When we practiced taking footage for the VR tour we accounted for many different things.  We made sure that our students weren't going to be in the images, every student knew how to operate the Theta S camera and app, and made sure to limit the footprint of our tripods.


Unfortunately, it was this last piece that led to a broken camera.  To make sure the photospheres had a minimal footprint to cover up we didn't extend the tripod's legs all the way.  This worked extremely well with the cameras that were inside away from the wind.  However, the wind blew over the camera that was capturing and we lost footage.  This could have been detrimental and really set us back, but the other teams of students worked extremely efficiently.  Since we planned out the shooting locations of the images, the other teams were ahead of schedule.  This allowed us to go back and get the footage needed to complete our tour.

The students did a remarkable job.  Everyone, including the park rangers and chaperones, were thrilled with how the students worked.  Now we have the footage that we need to make the virtual reality tour.  When we returned to the classroom, we spent our time finishing the artifact analysis scripts, sent the writing to be reviewed by rangers Tessa and Bob, and began to create the building tours using .
Holobuilder

Now, for a little relaxation during spring break...

#FVvr Scouting Field Trip & Research

Since the visit from Park Rangers Tessa Langford and Bob Cromwell of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site came to our school, Vancouver iTech Preparatory, our students have been busy.  They have been broken down into different teams to research the different buildings and areas of the park.  To do this, we allowed students select three possible locations that they were interested in, then we were able to divide the students into teams based on research interest.  This gives the students voice and choice in the project.  Once that occurred we went on our scouting field trip.  On that trip, the students toured the entire park and then got to spend some time in the buildings that they are researching.  When they were in their buildings, they needed to select at least one artifact that they found interesting to conduct research on.

After the first trip to the park, students began their research and work.  Each team of students began looking through the resources on the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site's webpage, several publications ,such as Exploring Fort Vancouver, the Google Cultural Institute, and even emailing with Park Rangers Tessa and Bob to conduct their research.  Each student is writing a script for a narration on their artifact, and building.  This process allows the students to build their research, analysis, and summarization skills along with enhancing their speaking and collaboration skills.  

During the days before the filming field trip, the students got to work in their teams to play and practice with the technology needed to capture the 360º images for the tour.  We went over the basic operations of using the Theta S camera and how to use the iPad app to take the images so that they don't appear in the final product.  This is done not only for student privacy reasons, but also so the user gets a more authentic visual experience.  This allows the students the chance to make some mistakes and have some failure and success with the new technology before we get to the fort for the real photo shoot. 

x

Because time was limited to just over two hours for our second trip, we wanted to make sure we were efficient getting the footage that we needed.  The student teams used several different tools to make a map of their building and mark out their filming locations.  Some teams, like the one researching the Garden and outside grounds, used a screenshot of Google Maps as their base before putting the image Google Drawings to add in their filming locations.  Many teams used Google Drawings to sketch out the different rooms and artifact locations.  A couple of teams decided to build a 3D model of their building using SketchUp, while some drew theirs out by hand on graph paper.  Regardless of which medium and tools they used, they developed critical thinking skills alongside their collaboration and communication skills.
into

Stay tuned for more, including the photo shoot field trip and script narrations...

#FVvr (Fort Vancouver Virtual Reality)

A couple of weeks ago my students, colleague, and I embarked on a new project at our S.T.E.M. and PBL based school, Vancouver iTech Preparatory.  FVvr (pronounced fever) is a project in which our Washington State History studnets work as historians, curators, and archaeologists to create a virtual reality tour of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.  This is an ambitious project that has been in the works for well over a year.

 

To make this project a [virtual] reality (pun intended), we had to work with the fort and the National Parks Service.  We meet several times trying to figure out what we might do.  And, while we have some ideas, the fun part is not knowing exactly how it will turn out.  We have a deadline, have had the curators and park rangers visit our school, and have had a scouting field trip already.

Right now students are selecting the artifacts that they want to research and collaborating in their teams to map out the building and other locations that they will need to photograph next week.  Some teams are emailing the park rangers and asking them questions in preparation, other are sending them pictures of items that they want to know more about.  It is amazing to watch the students step up and craft well written professional emails as they communicate with the rangers.  This is part of the PBL experience that I am passionate about.  I facilitate, but they are doing the work.  They are getting the experiences.


Next week, we head back to use our special Theta S cameras to take 360º photospheres throughout the park.  I can't wait to see how they deal with the sharing and utilization of the technology.  The goal is to provide our students with the experience of creating something not just for themselves, but for our community, and the world.  It is important to learn and explore our local history.  It'll be even more fun to share it beyond our borders.

360º Cameras & VR in the Classroom

     I have always been a fan of technology.  I believe that technology can and must be integrated into the classroom for our students.  During my 2014-2015 winter break I was preparing for IMPACT! a project that would look at Mount St. Helens and its impact on people and society in Washington state.  As I was playing around on Google Maps, I saw that it was possible to put 360º images up onto Google.  I was EXCITED!  I had taken one from the summit when I climbed it the previous year and wanted to put that out for the world to see.  I had used the iOS app 360 Panorama, and was not able to load it.  I needed to see how I can load 360º images to Google.

      That is when I came across the Google Photosphere program, which has since been updated to the Street View program.  I saw that you could take a 360º image using the Street View app, for either iOS or Android, and then upload to Google Views and Google Maps.  Then I came across a section that showed a new camera that allowed a user to take a 360º image with the click of a button.  I showed the Ricoh Theta camera to my principal and she was blown away.  I purchased one and began to think about the possibilities of using the camera in my social studies classrooms.  

      As I played with the camera and took pictures and videos on my travels.  I began to load images (Mount St. Helens, Vancouver Art Museum, Evergreen Air and Space Museum, and New Orleans) to Google Maps and was thinking of ways to link them together.  I began to think about how I could have my students take these pictures and create a tour for other students and people to experience.   

      I immediately thought of taking my studnets to the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.  I began scouting the site on my own, and then made contact with the the park historian and museum curator.  We met and began our collaboration.  We tried to make the project fit into the the end of last school year, but that was unreasonable.  We decided to push the project back to this school year (2015-2016).  Pushing back the project allowed for other applications to be developed that will help us create our final product.  During the time, the web application Holobuilder came out and now we have our way to connect the different images and create our tour.  The fantastic thing about Holobuilder is that not only is it easy to use, but the tours can be embedded on a website and be viewed using VR devices like Google Cardboard and the View-Master.  

A sample tour I made using footage from the climb of Mount St. Helens some colleagues and I did over the summer.  

I am getting excited about this upcoming project and the possibilities that these cameras and viewers will allow us to do in our classrooms.  With the Google Expeditions program traveling across the country, and the world, we are starting to see the power that this type of experience can have for our students. No longer to they have to just look at a still image in a book or a print out.  They can see first hand the places that they are investigating.  They can analyze and compare the architecture of Canterbury Cathedral versus the Golden Pavilion-Kinkaku. No longer does the classroom have to be static. This technology allows our classrooms to become engaging, energetic, and dynamic. I encourage everyone to take their students on a virtual field trip, whether it is through a computer, a mobile device, or a Cardboard viewer. I encourage you to visit the Google Street View Gallery, or app, and take your students to places you never thought possible.

IMPACT! 1.0

     Last spring my students and I embarked on a journey to tell the stories of our community and the impact that Mount St. Helens had on them.  To me, having students conduct an oral history project is extremely important.  Not only does it allow for students to build research, reading, and writing skills, but also their communication, teamwork, and technology skills.  This process, although time consuming and messy, is an amazing experience for students to have.

     During the project the students worked in teams to explore how different people from our community experience the mountain in different ways.  The students got to film their interviews with parents, a professional photographer, geologists, ecologists, a glaciologist, volcanologists, and others who work on or around Mount St. Helens.  Then they wrote up the interview and most teams even made a short film/documentary using the interview footage.  Afterwards I have several studnets want to keep working, so they built a website dedicated to hosting their work along with their peers.

     Here is the link to the student created website, www.mtsthelensimpact.org  Please visit the site to see more about the project, aong with the amazing work that the students did.  This project was an important foundation to the work that they then get to do as Freshmen in their biology class.  This past September the same studnets get to go up to the mountain, on an overnight field trip, to conduct research on the plant life and ecosystems in the blast zone.  The interdisciplinary learning that goes on at our school leads to a more developed student and the real world experiences give them skills and memories that will last a lifetime.

Teaching Geography Through Climate Change

        This past summer I found myself exploring many different avenues as to how I would be teaching world geography for my World Studies class. I read a great article from Education Week Teacher titled Six Characteristics of a Great STEM Lesson. As a S.T.E.M. and project-based educator at my school, iTech Prep, I am always looking for ways to bring a new lens onto the topics I teach.  After reading the article and exploring the links I came across another article, Top 10 Places Already Affected by Climate Change and then the PBS video, Paradise Lost.  This fit in perfectly with the first characteristic from the article and with what I learned at my BIE training over the summer, which to focus on a real world issue/problem.  Out of these inspirations came Adaptation.  

         The project gives students a chance to learn how people have migrated and immigrated around the world, the geography of the world, what climate change is, and what places will be affected.  Then they explain how those places will be affected, and come up with a solution that they will promote by creating an advertising campaign for their solution.  It is tied directly to Common Core Standards, and allows the students to be historians, cartographers, scientists, and advertising specialists, while building 21st Century digital skills. 

         With the impact of climate change at the forefront of the news these days, I felt this topic was the perfect way to integrate social studies with S.T.E.M. and a little bit of art.  For an encompassing S.T.E.A.M. project.  Here are the materials for the project, and the requirements.  More info and lesson plans will be posted on my website.

Adaptation Project Green Sheet

Adaptation Resources

Migration History Interview

Family Tree Template

Google Maps Engine Lite

Sample Family Movement Map 

Google Tour Builder

         Being a project-based school like iTech is, it is essential to let go of what may come out of project.  An important thing to remember is that true project-based learning is not product-based learning.  There are times that you need students to practice certain skills and produce certain products, this project allows students do both.  They created some more specific products as we moved through the project and learned some new things, but at the end they were allowed to truly explore their own learning and create something meaningful to them.  Some students made posters, others pamphlets, Google Slides presentations, or even websites.  For those students that wanted to learn new technologies, and experience video making they used iPads, Green Screens, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker and Tellagami.  I have several tutorials on these that I show the students and allow them to explore them in class, but many times the students knew where to find videos that help them learn about how to use these tools.  Even though most students chose pamphlets, there was a tremendous amount to excitement around what the students created.  Here are some of the different products that were made.

Abi's Climate Change Solution 

Save the Sushi! by True