Oh! The places I CAN see!!

Description of the project:
. It is amazing and easy enough for a six year old. Students will go on a virtual field trip of famous landmarks around the world, and by utilizing this new technology and a webcam; these landmarks will come to life right in front of the student’s eyes. Students can easily zoom in to their landmark and manipulate the landmark on all sides (3-D) by moving their paper/marker around in front of their webcam. While teaching technology standards as well as science and social studies standards, students will go on a highly impressive virtual field trip. The lesson will build up the student’s knowledge of famous landmarks, geographical understanding of the world, technology performance, as well as their enthusiasm over these three class meetings.
What makes this project innovative and/or creative?
This cutting-edge technology brings the 21rst century into the classroom. Seeing pictures of famous landmarks around the world on a flat monitor has its advantages; however, seeing the world virtually through augmented reality is very exciting. Augmented reality is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage. Students will explore the world with a hands-on approach. Children this age love to explore, use the computer, and use their hands. This lesson is highly student-centered. It’s similar to manipulating a 3-Dimensional hologram.

How will this project benefit students?
This project will benefit students by: helping them with problem solving skills, manipulating computer programs, learning about famous landmarks, learning about energy saving, learning how to operate/add/access a different type of hard-ware (webcam), geographical understanding, understanding about alternate energy sources. Most importantly, this lesson will expose my students to the 21rst century, and allow them to have a hands-on FUN time!!

How the project will be implemented.
The project will span over three consecutive regular scheduled classes. I will hook my student’s curiosity by introducing the webcam. We will learn how to access the webcam from our computer, and interact with it. We will talk about how to interact with our settings etc… We will look at other programs that use webcams, and talk about the capabilities that a webcam offers us, and of course we will look at our classmates and have fun exploring our surroundings through new eyes.
On the second session we will explore the ge.com website, and I will introduce the students to augmented reality by showing them the “smart grid”. This website along with my lecture on definitions will teach the students about alternative energy choices like wind and solar. It will also show my student how augmented reality works. We will use our webcams and a solar panel marker, printed on regular paper, to explore the wind turbine and the solar energy interactives.
On the third session, we will use the AR sites program that works along with Google Earth, and our AR marker (that we will print out on our glossy paper) After we print off the AR Sights marker, we will hold it up to our camera and up pops the landmark that we have chose in Google Earth. The students will be able to twist, turn, and move their marker/paper and the landmark will move with them. The landmark choices are endless, and views are absolutely AMAZING!!