Building a Community with Sketch-Up and Google Earth…
Tony Jamesbarry, the music and technology teacher at Lewis Elementary, has been working with his 4th and 5th grade students learning Google Sketch-Up. They are currently creating houses, learning how to wrap textures, place objects and manipulate the environment within in Sketch-Up. This is leading up to a planned community building activity, both figuratively and literally. Sketch-Up can grab a specific location from Google Earth and using that as a guide, students will be able to build their houses on a specific lot. Tony has been searching Google Earth looking for housing developments that are partially completed.
For example he recently found a location in Google Earth that had streets and cul-de-sacs laid, but construction had not yet started. He used the path tools within Google Earth to create lots. After the students become a bit more familiar with Sketch-Up, Tony will assign them specific lots in the housing development (see example images below…) with the idea that each student will build a home on a lot. Part of the process will involve discussion of zoning and building codes. The students will decide on rules and regulations for their community. I’m looking forward to watching the process develop.
We have recently installed Wordpress Multi-User and plan to give each of the students a blog to write daily reflections on their work. More about this later…
Technorati Tags: Google Earth, Google Sketch-Up
November 19th, 2006 10:27
I love this. What a great way to engage students on multiple levels, resulting in something much closer to real life rather than homework.
November 19th, 2006 16:49
Studing Geomentry in a 2.0 world…
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November 19th, 2006 16:51
Simply amazing! I posted this on my U Tech Tips web site, and will added it to the newsletter later today that goes out to 400+ educators. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to be talking more about.
November 19th, 2006 17:16
Why you are not in control of information…
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December 1st, 2006 00:03
is it possible to use Maps generated for google earth for other GIS Applications ?
June 25th, 2007 13:44
[...] Barnabu blog discusses how to add a sky with clouds over any spot on earth using Google Earth and a network link he has provided. He has created a half dome in Google Sketchup with diameter of 50 miles and placed a cloud texture within the dome. He then made this object a network link which will grab your current view and place the skydome model around that location. I navigated to Atlanta in Google Earth, invoked the skydome link and then turned on 3d images to get this view of Atlanta complete with a cloudy background. Sketchup is an amazing piece of software that teachers and students can utilize in very creative ways. [...]
July 29th, 2007 08:09
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