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