Augmenter App

The school year has started and it's been crazy already! always feel like I am on the go, energizer bunny style!

Anyway, I wanted to talk about an ipad app that is absolutely incredible. Its called Augmenter. It has 3-D simulations of various objects like the human brain, dinosaurs, flowers, etc. which works out well with my Biology students. I have only used the science portion of the app but it has other features for math and history. My favorite one is the human brain which is an important part of the end of course exam my students take. It helps with labels, they can take the brain apart, make certain parts invisible, etc.

It offers a really cool feature where you place a "marker" on the table and it gives you the impression of having the item on the table in front of you in 3D. Similar to the Nintendo DS Augmented Reality Cards where you scan them with your Nintendo DS and you see a character appear and interact on your screen on top of the card.

There is a free version of the app with some of the explorations for free, but the paid version offers more than 300 models to use. I currently only use the free one because most of what I want to demonstrate is easily done on the free app and projected on the big screen. 

By far a very interesting way to learn various concepts and a definite thumbs up!

Check out the demo video below :)

The Fairchild Challenge! 2015-2016

Since I started at the new middle school I am at, I have been a part of the Fairchild Challenge. It's an environmental competition between schools in the district where we complete different events or challenges and receive points for it. This will be my 3rd year in the competition and also running the program at my school site. The students love it and the program has some remote locations throughout the US and internationally where some of the challenges are open to those schools known as the Global Challenge.

This years focus is on the Voyage of plants! We will be working together with NASA on challenges that focus on cultivating edible plants in small spaces and indoors to promote the research of growing in space. Here are a few pictures below of some of the set ups we will be using this year and of course of myself in front of a sign! 

check out the Fairchild Challenge!