Sixth grade Science students were able to interact with an intriguing piece of technology when District Conservationists, Luke Westerman and District Manager, Keila Sherman, demonstrated how to use the remote sensing Augmented Reality Sandbox on September 26th, at Marshall Elementary School. This piece of equipment provides detailed images of Earth that can be used to study the Earth’s surface or to simulate naturally occurring phenomenon, such as wildfires and volcanoes that can affect populations.
The students got a chance to personalize this technology when they were able to create their own landforms depicting the Flint Hills in the sand. Using electromagnetic waves, the AR sandbox was able to create a map showing the topographical features of the Flint Hills. The depth measurement sensor, on the sandbox, captured the distance to the sand surface. The received data was then transferred to the computer. The computer processed the data and sent a command to the projector. The projector highlighted the sand surface with realistic textures in the terrain – blue water, green hills etc.
Students were then able to create a storm over the city of Eureka and watch how the rainfall forms local watersheds. All of this occurred in real time and students were able to make changes in the terrain and see the effect of their changes on the topographical maps.
It was amazing and a lot of fun. The Greenwood County Conservation District continues to be a great community resource for the schools in our area.
No comments:
Post a Comment