French Advanced: Bastide 3D Design

French Advanced students have been learning about traditional French towns called bastides, which were typically designed with a surrounding wall, a central church and marketplace.

With the aim of getting the students to really study the design and layout of these types of towns they had to recreate a complete real town in 3D using Tinkercad. They used geometric shapes and holes to draw the individual wall sections and buildings, complete with cutout window and door detailing.

Each student chose a different town to recreate and the finished models were then printed on the 3D printer. A selection of photographs from the project can be seen below, including some shots of the finished printed models:

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French Novice – Children’s Storybooks

French Novice students have recently been learning vocabulary for different animals, items of clothing and colors. Based around these sets of words they each created a digital children’s storybook in which an animal visits a famous place and then puts on ten different colored items of clothing. They then came up with a punchline for their story, as well as an eye-catching book cover.

The book was designed and created using Google Slides (either using their iPads or Chromebooks), making use of the software’s simple drawing and shapes options, and the students spent a lot of time searching Google Images for pictures of clothing with transparent backgrounds. They also tried to create layouts and chose fonts that would appeal to a younger audience.

A selection of their completed ebooks are embedded below:

Additionally, the students were asked to read aloud and record their ebooks to provide an audiobook edition of their content (as well as practice their pronunciation). The students used either the AudioCopy app on their iPads or the Voice Memos app on their iPhones.

Again, a selection of the recordings are embedded below as a SoundCloud playlist:

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Grade 7 Latin – Ancient Britain Google My Maps

Salvete, amici!

The 7th grade Latin class is putting to rest, once and for all, the incorrect statement that “Latin is a dead language”. This year, in addition to grammar and history study, the students have been listening to the classic young adult novel, The Eagle of the Ninth. This story tells the tale of a young centurion, Marcus Flavius Aquila, who must leave the legions after he is seriously injured in the heroic rescue of his fort. Alone in the strange and wild world of Roman-Briton, Marcus must build a new life for himself. He finds peace and purpose in the quest to regain his family’s honor by finding the lost eagle of Ninth Legion. Marcus goes on his quest nearly 2,000 years ago; with the help of Mr. Crofton, the 7th graders have prepared their own quests for the modern day.

The students researched five towns in the British countryside that have Roman ruins. In addition to the Roman features, they found other interesting sites in the towns as well. Using Scribble Maps for planning and taking notes and then Google My Maps, the students made annotated maps of their selected cities. Their maps are peppered with “push pins” explaining the particular sites and featuring pictures of the features. Next, they added driving directions to their maps resulting in an easy-to-follow perfect itinerary for a family trip.

As a young teen, I read The Eagle of the Ninth and its sequels, The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers. When I graduated from college, my parents gave me a trip to England. Where did I go? To Calleva and Colchester, to visit the world of Marcus Aquila. I hope that these Latin students will someday walk in the footsteps of this centurion as well.

Ms. Reedy, Latin Teacher

A selection of students maps are embedded below – click on the larger map icon in the top right hand corner for more details of each tour:

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French Intermediate – 3D Cathedral Design

Many years ago, my husband and I read Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth before we traveled to England. That book gave us an excellent background on gothic architecture and it helped us gain a better understanding and appreciation of these man-made marvels. When I traveled to France for the first time in 1988, my visit to Chartres Cathedral was the high point of the trip.

When I began teaching French in the 1990’s, I decided to teach my students about gothic architecture so that when they one day visit France, they, too, will look knowledgeably at these miraculous skyscrapers of long ago. They will recognize the cruciform floor plan where the north-south nave is crossed by the east-west transept. They will appreciate the flying buttresses giving support to the vaulted ceiling. They will admire the pointed gothic arches surmounting the tracery of the stained glass windows, including the magnificent rose windows.

And it worked! I received this e-mail last summer from a previous student of mine:

“I am in Malta on vacation and doing sightseeing. I’ve visited three different neo-gothic cathedrals and the knowledge from our project helped alot and it was great.”

While the French students were reading an excerpt of Les Misérables,“The Bishop’s Candlesticks”, in class, they each researched a gothic cathedral. They were required to draw and define a number of architectural terms, research the history of their own cathedral, and do an oral presentation, partially en français, to their classmates.

This year, with the help of Mr. Crofton, we added something new and exciting to the project! The students used Tinkercad and the 3D printer to make models of their cathedrals. To do this, each student had to look carefully at the cathedral – Where do the flying buttresses intersect with the roof? – Are both of the towers exactly the same? – How does the interior floor plan compare to the exterior design? By the end of the design phase, the students really knew their cathedrals. I so hope that someday these students will visit these cathedrals!

Mrs. Reedy, French Teacher

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Humanities History – Virtual Field Trip to the Parthenon

Mr. Middleton’s Humanities History classes recently went on a virtual field trip to the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Using the school’s set of Google Cardboard VR headsets and the students’ smartphones we used a selection of apps to visit the Parthenon site as well as the Acropolis Museum and its frieze galleries.

  • The first stop on the tour was using Google Street View to looks at various 360° photographs of the Parthenon site, from all different angels
  • Next we used the Google Expeditions app to visit the frieze galleries in the Acropolis Museum
  • We then used the Google Arts and Culture app to view a ultra-high resolution photograph of the east frieze
  • And finally, still within the Google Arts and Culture app, we went inside the museum again (based on Google Street View data) to see the view of the Parthenon from the north window:

A few shots of the tour (and tour guide!) in action can be seen below:

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Augmented Reality in the Classroom

Augmented reality (AR) is the real time combination of digital information with your surrounding environment. AR uses your device’s camera to capture this environment and its digital display to overlay new information on top of it.

During some recent faculty training sessions we looked at the following apps (on both the iPad and iPhone) as a kick-off point to future use of this technology in the classroom.

Google Translate

Translate foreign language words and sentences in real time:

Spacecraft 3D

Insert into and digitally interact with 3D models of different spacecraft in your local environment:

AR Mountains & Peaks

Scan surrounding hills and mountains to see what landmarks (and their elevation) are close by:

HP Reveal/Aurasma

Make your own augmented reality by creating custom overlays for real-life objects:

IKEA Place

Place and rotate objects from IKEA’s furniture catalog into your local environment:

MeasureKit

Digitally measure any object around you:

PaintSpaceAR

Draw and doodle on a 3D canvas:

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Conceptual Physics – 3D Car Race Day

For the final part of the Conceptual Physics project based around car design, students had to prep their 3D printed cars for the test ramp and were then given three chances to record their fastest speed down the ramp (recorded with a radar sensor) and longest distance travelled off the ramp. Any car that did not make it down the ramp was disqualified for that turn.

We then finished off the project by running racing heats side-by-side to see which of the cars in each class was the fastest to a specified finish line at the end of the ramp. We even raced the fastest design against the best car from last years project.

Here are a few shots from the race prep and race day classes and a close-up of some of the finished designs the students created using the 3D printer and Tinkercad:

And finally, a YouTube playlist of some of the different cars heading down the testing ramp is embedded below:

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US History – Freedom Trail Video Tours using Clips or iMovie

As in previous years US History students took a trip this trimester to Boston. They spent the day walking along the Freedom Trail and, in groups, documenting the tour by taking pictures and movies with their iPads. Once back in school they had to work in their groups to put together a professional video, edited with either iMovie or the Clips app, recreating their walking tour from the different footage and photographs they had taken.

Using either of these apps students had to go through several production steps to complete their films, including: collecting together clips and photographs on to one iPad; constructing their timeline – ordering/trimming clips & images together; adding titles – including an intro title and credits; removing any unwanted audio and recording any additional voice over; watching through the entire video to check for any editing errors; and finally saving, renaming and sharing their finished movie.

Here are a couple of examples of the completed tours, again made using photographs and video from the trip and either the Clips app or iMovie:

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Conceptual Physics – 3D Race Car Design

A project that Freshmen complete every year in their Conceptual Physics course is designing and creating cars that are raced down a ramp and measured for speed and distance travelled. Students design their cars completely using Tinkercad to create parts to be printed on the 3D printer.

The project started with an introduction to professional car design based around this video from BMW. We talked through the three main steps of: drawing and sketching their design ideas; prototyping using clay to create a 3D model; and then manufacture. We also spent some time discussing wheel design and how wheels could be attached to the main body of their cars.

We then worked through these same steps using the sketching tools in the Notability app (or pen and paper) to create 2D designs, professional-grade modeling clay to create their prototypes and finally Tinkercad to design their car parts for the 3D printer for manufacturing.

A selection of photos of the students working on their iPads and in the Library iMac lab, some of their car sketches, clay prototypes and a selection of the finished printed models can be seen below:

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Using the Clips App to Create Quick Classroom Videos

Clips is a new app for making fun videos to share with friends, family, and the world. With a few taps you can create and send a video message or tell a quick story with animated text, graphics and emoji, music, and more.

Sitting in-between the basic editing tools in the Camera app and the more advanced timeline-based features of iMovie, the new Clips app from Apple is quick and easy way for students and faculty to create and share movies made up of photos, videos, text, audio and music.

Note that you may need to update your iPad to the latest version of iOS to get the Clips app to install.

After you open the app you will have the option of either recording a new video, taking a new photo or using existing photos and video from your library:

If you are going to be recording a new video or taking a new picture inside the app you have some options available to you before you start recording. Or if you are using an existing video or photo you will get these same options once you have selected it.

  1. Live titles. Select the text style you would like and then tap and hold the red button – as you speak text subtitles will be automatically added to your clip:

2. Filters, which add a color or graphical effect similar to what Instagram or Comic Life offer – and again tap and hold the red button for as long as you want to the clip to appear in your movie:

3. Stickers, which are transparent text objects that can be overlaid onto your clip (once selected the sticker text can be edited with a double-tap and then dragged to the desired position).

After you have added the sticker, tap and hold the red button to record your clip.

Once you have added a clip (either using the effects above or not) you will now see a timeline appear at the bottom of your screen. As you add more clips you can tap, hold and drag the clip bubbles to rearrange their order. You can also tap the play button to preview what you have created or tap individual clips to select them and either add further effects as above, delete them with the trash can icon or trim them with the scissors icon (you can swipe up to hide these options and get back access to the red record button).

Another object which you can add to your timeline are title slides. These are full screen templates that can be used as a more traditional title slide or for text instructions (again the text can be edited with a double-tap once a design has been selected):

After you have chosen your title style and edited the text, tap and hold the red button to record your clip.

When you have finished recording all your clips and they are in the correct order in the timeline you can add background music. Apple has provided a library of music within the app for this – just tap on the music note icon in the top right hand corner of the screen:

Tap Soundtracks and then tap on a title to listen to the track. It will download and once finished a blue tick will appear to the left of the title. If you would like to use this track in your project tap the blue back arrow in the top left hand corner of the screen.

You can now preview your entire project with this background music using the play button:

If you are happy with your selection tap Done to return you to the timeline view (or tap Soundtracks again to chose another). The app will automatically change the volume levels of the music so it won’t overpower any voiceover audio you have already recorded.

Finally to export your project, tap on the share icon in the bottom right hard corner of the screen:

This will let you either save the video to your local photo library using the Save Video option or upload it to Google Drive for sharing.

Finally, if you want to start a new project or edit an existing one just look for the down arrow in the top left hand corner:

Tapping on this will drop down a new pane with all your existing projects and a + icon to start a new project.

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