Using Augmented Reality to Student Different Parts of the Brain: A MindUp Classroom Project

I have had SO much fun working with one of my 2nd grade teachers on a project for their MindUp school. The MindUp program has students "learn to self-regulate behavior and mindfully engage in focused concentration required for academic success." This class has been researching the different parts of the brain and their functions. They wanted to create a collaborative movie to bring awareness to others in their school and community about the responsibilities of the different parts of the brain.

I love this project so much because it was truly an authentic, student led experience from start to finish! Students worked in small groups to create informative movies about a part of the brain they wanted to explore. Students used the augmented reality app, Augmenter now known as Edulus VR, to explore parts of the brain. This app is AMAZING. I blogged about it before HERE. The free version comes with 13 different models while the paid version has over 300 models.  To complete this project we only needed the free version since the brain was one of the 13!

After students researched their specific part of the brain, they scanned the app's trigger image and a brain popped up. We had a blast dissecting the different parts of the brain and taking pictures of each other holding the hippocampus, dendrites, amygdala, etc. This really made their research come alive. These pictures were used in their iPad videos. Each group was given free range to choose an app that would best help them with their video creation. Some of the apps we used were Chatterkid, YakIt Kids, and Stage. After the different movie segments were created, we held a competition! The teacher and I had his students open a blank Pixie file and design what they thought would make an excellent cover for their class movie. Students had to come up with a creative title that would represent the main idea/purpose of their movie as well as make the slide visually appealing. We had them save their creation as a jpeg and upload their image to {THIS} Dotstorming board. Dotstorming allowed the students to vote on their favorite image. Hence, THE BRAIN EXPERIENCE was born:

   

The last step to this project was working as a class to compile the images and video clips to make one big movie using Windows Movie Maker. This movie will be shown on morning announcements and tweeted out to Goldie Hawn, the founder of Mind Up! Once again, my favorite thing about this project was the authentic nature in which students led the way from start to finish.

Enjoy:


 
The Brain Experience from Julie on Vimeo.

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