Pupils go on ‘trip’ to Mars
PUPILS at Oldcastle Primary School in Bridgend have been going on digital expeditions to Mars and designing their own apps.
The youngsters received an out-of-this-world experience when years one to six got taken on a Google Expedition.
Teachers were able to take pupils on an immersive, virtual journey right in the classroom where the pupils acted as “explorers” through collections of 360-degree and 3D images while pointing out interesting sights along the way.
Using this, the children have explored coral reefs, underwater life, the surface of Mars and journeys into space, as well as finding out more about history.
Teacher at Oldcastle Janine Wright said: “It has been wonderful to see the children getting so excited by the experience. Younger children were able to watch the 360-degree photography on small devices whilst the older children were able to immerse themselves in virtual reality headsets.
“The expeditions experience has been wonderful to allow children the opportunity to experience a different way of learning.”
Apart from travelling to other worlds, year four pupils have been able to build their own app.
Over the last few months, the eight and nine-yearolds have been developing a maths app for iPads. With the help of digital artist educators Pyka, the children created the app to help develop mathematical problem solving skills.
According to the school, the children were taken on a creative journey to design and create all the content for their “Scary Wasteland” app.
All of the processes required the children to use and develop maths reasoning skills, from time man- agement to calculating measurements and ratio. Doing this meant that the children were able to take the best photos, record the best sounds and create challenging puzzles to be used in the app.
Children showcased the app to their parents at a special launch event on Tuesday, April 4.
“Children loved working with Pyka and really engaged with the whole process,” said their teacher Celyn Roberts.
“The children created their own team name, The Puzzling Mathematicians, and called their project The Scary Wasteland.
“We all thoroughly enjoyed developing the app and as a school we are grateful to receive funding from the Arts Council of Wales through the Lead Creative Schools programme.”