Ugly Sweater Party on the Reaction Grid!

For our last class of the semester all avatars got a set of 4 ugly holiday sweaters, a Santa hat, and a pair of skates with a skating animation. Students had to use the snipping tool, save pics to their folder and then put them on their Prezis. Here are the photos that got taken. Our sim crashed mid-party, but Reaction Grid gurus Chris Hart and Kyle Gomboy were ready to help us out. We love working and playing on the Reaction Grid! (See video below)

Getting in the Holiday Mood on the Reaction Grid

Junior High Students in Ms. Strehlow's Digital Art Elective continue to work on final Reaction Grid projects but with a twist. Holiday textures and Gingerbread Houses are making an appearance along with the houses and rooms being designed. One student is working hard on a replica of a WWII bomber plane. (See video below)

Beach Umbrella Challenge

This was a very tricky engineering project in the guise of a beach umbrella. Very few students were capable of following all the directions and creating the umbrella, but those who did showed me that they could go on to high school and college with some major building skills.

Chair Building Challenge

Students in some classes needed much more structure for many logistical reasons. I created building areas that were large but contained with invisible barriers to prevent students from wandering off. The chair challenge would show me who could be trusted to stay focused and given more privileges. (See video below) 

Getting Started on the Grid Again

Every new school year I have the fun of teaching newbies how to rez prims (create primitive shapes from their avatar building menu) and turn those into furniture, houses, and more. It is a slightly chaotic but fun experience for everyone. I go in after class to clean up the mess, but I love having an environment like this where kids can build to their hearts content. It's like a never ending set of Legos! (See video below)

The Chess Challenge

Here are some of the more completed assignments done by Jr. High but also including some of the latest pieces done by a small group of 5th graders

Jacob's Chess Set

Jacob is doing independent work on the Reaction Grid because he was in band and could not sign up for the regular Reaction Grid class and completed the chess set in less than two class periods! Way to go Jacob! He doesn't have the company of other avatars so he is very focused on the work. Working in a virtual world is also a social environment. Luckily Jacob had a chance to experience that in a previous class.

Chess Set Challenge

Students are now working with Rokuro to create a sculpted prim chess set on the Reaction Grid after finishing their new t-shirt designs. Rokuro is a virtual lathe, so the students also learned what a lathe does in real life. (See video below)

Rokuro and Tokoroten = Lathe and Extruder for Sculpted Prims

We have been so busy creating sculpted prims using the open source programs Rokuro and Tokoroten that I haven't captured any of the progress on the floor plans. Now we are using Gimp to create graphics with transparent backgrounds to create plants and animals. After that we are going to design t-shirts for our avatars using Robin Wood's templates. (See video below)

Second Semester Building Begins

Some of the students choose Virtual Worlds as an elective again but some of the students were brand new. The continuing students just took up where they left off and required very little from me during the class period. That gave me lots of time to work with the newbies. (See video below)

We Got Blogged!

We got mentioned in this educational blog today! Please check out the article.