Students at Grandview Heights Schools are taking sand to the next level.
Photos courtesy of Brad Gintert
Because of a grant from The Grandview Heights/Marble Cliff Education Foundation, Grandview Heights teachers Brad Gintert and Laura Williamson provided their students with an augmented reality sandbox that allows them to learn kinetically alongside the supplemented material.
The software for the sandbox was developed and customized by a team of scientists at The University of California, Davis – to teach concepts such as reading topographic maps, contour lines, levees, watersheds, and other geographic and geological concepts.
Gintert teaches industrial technology at Grandview Heights, and the sandbox has given him a new way to relay difficult concepts to his students.
“As an educator, this was a great opportunity for my engineering students to use and implement the engineering design cycle,” Gintert says. “It has positively impacted my teaching because I can now provide my students real-world opportunities.”
The sandbox allows the students to create real-life models by shaping the sand around with their hands, which is then translated by an elevation color map, topographic contour lines and simulated bodies of water. It works through a special camera, simulation and visualization effects, and a complex data projector to make the learning literally come alive right before your eyes.
“It’s hard to say what the best part of the sandbox is because it’s so cool and unique to us,” Gintert says. “Being able to integrate technology into a teaching tool that the students love is definitely the best part.”
Gintert’s students were also able to play an important role in the construction of the sandbox, with Williamson as their stand-in “client.” Students were able to design aspects of the sandbox according to their client’s standards with special computer-aided design software and equipment from the IT lab at the school. Now that the sandbox is officially useable, students can enjoy something they helped build for the district — and that, Gintert says, was an important facet of the project itself.
“I’m always looking for unique learning opportunities for our students,” he says. “This is just a continuation of our efforts to find problems for our students to solve within the school district.”
Although some of the more complex geographical questions are saved for the high school students, students of all ages are encouraged to explore the sandbox’s cool features. Because every student learns differently, teachers within the district are hopeful that it will help more kinetic learners connect concepts to visual aids that the sandbox provides in real time.
Tessa Flattum is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
