Friends in Cool Places

“Friends in Cool Places”

by Morris McCormick 5th Grade Teacher - Arminta Street Elementary School
 

For the second year in a row, Arminta Street ES has been host to the Google Expedition Team. This year, 400 plus K-5 students were given the opportunity to engage in the first beta testing of Google’s newest addition to the Expedition app - AR (Augmented Reality). Teachers at Arminta led classrooms through lessons on the Solar System, Forces of Nature, Dinosaurs, and Da Vinci's Inventions.

Access has been a point of contingency for many of these students, but when it comes to cutting edge technology, they are on the frontline. Just one year ago the students were given early access to virtual field trips using Google Cardboard and the Expedition app. Following a series of fundraising activities, Mr. McCormick’s 5th-grade class began filming their own 360 videos to create virtual fieldtrips to share with the greater community. This year, Arminta’s Google Pioneers, adults and children alike, were asked to participate and provide Google feedback on the next iteration of the Expedition app, due for release in late 2018.

The partnership with Google has inspired many of the students to investigate careers outside of the traditional realms. Moving away from gaming for entertainment sake, to investigations of game-based coding for its utility in various professions from medicine to space exploration. The experience has also been an entry point for many of the tenured staff into using technology as a part of their instructional toolkit and moving toward becoming a 21st Century learning environment.