VR, AR and XR

Virtual Reality Oculus VR by Jennifer Garcialrc

Over the last few months Mr. Padilla, our Design/ICT Tech teacher has been busily working to prepare and engage students with the Oculus Quest headsets. 

We have explored how can we use the Oculus (Now Meta) Quest 2 headsets in the classroom, along with some engaging content, like 360 videos, Mozilla Hubs, Mozilla Spoke, Unity, and other tools. There is great potential to use the headsets with our current projects to make walkthroughs, integrate animation, and explore video game design with them. 

There is also some interest in using the devices for EE projects and for certain subjects, particularly when we need to experience how things work (Physics, chemistry, biology), or visit far away places, particularly those difficult to reach or even dangerous, in a safe immersive way.

Our next steps will be to research novel ways to further merge the digital and physical world through haptic technologies and explore spaces and design through the use of Mozilla Hubs.

Further items to improve will be the support for Teacher-led experiences by syncing or controlling all the devices to play a certain resource or content at the same time, improve how we can share the experiences to a wider audience using streaming. Students should also ideally start to produce some content to integrate their projects with this technology.

These headsets motivate all students to explore through augmented, virtual, and mixed reality experiences. Applications for using these devices go far beyond simple gaming and leisure activities and can impact positively across most disciplines including but not inclusive of health, sports and medicine, education and training, design and engineering, history and geography. 

During these last two weeks, our students in 9th and 11th computer science and 11th ITGS have had opportunities to explore the technologies used with these devices as well as practical applications through experiential learning in lessons. 

Students from across the school also had the opportunity to explore this technology during STEAM Fest 2022 at the Oculus Playground. 

Here is the link to our flickr photo gallery for this set of experiences.

Sleeping mats

Éste día hicimos entrega a la Alcaldía Municipal de San Salvador, distrito No. 1, la cantidad de 6 colchonetas confeccionadas con material reciclado, para beneficiar a igual cantidad de personas. Dicha entrega se realizó en la Biblioteca Digital de la Colonia Satélite.

Citando de nuestra página web algunos fragmentos de la Misión, visión y valores de la escuela, quisiera destacar que:

Creemos que tenemos el deber de capacitar a los jóvenes con los valores, cualidades y habilidades para que puedan ser agentes de estos cambios.

Creemos que el desarrollo de este compromiso, unido a estos valores y habilidades se basan en nuestra comunidad de aprendizaje, que fomenta en los jóvenes un fuerte sentido de conciencia y respeto por ellos mismos, los demás y el resto de la sociedad. (Academia Británica Cuscatleca)



Nuestro Club Sleeping Mats, esta conformado por jóvenesque cumplen con las caracteristicas arriba descritas y que estan plenamente comprometidos con el bienestar de los más necesitados. Su motivación en contribuir a mejorar la situación de las personas sin hogar que duermen en las calles en cartones. Así mismo, contribuimos a cuidar el medio ambiente al recolectar bolsas plásticas que de otra manera terminarían en los basureros.

Cada colchoneta está compuesta por más o menos 800 bolsas plásticas, cuidadosamente trenzadas entre sí para proveer una superficie cómoda, que permite almacenar el calor, es duradera y a la vez resistente a la humedad. Se estima que cada una de ellas ha tomado entre 40 y 50 horas para su elaboración, la cual se realiza completamente a mano.

Es un proyecto muy interesante, lleno de muchos valores y conciencienciación ya que a la hora de elaborar cada trenza para formar nuestra manta, a través del trabajo manual los estudiantes reflexionan, comparten experiencias y se mantienen alegres, emocionados y motivados al saber que alguien será beneficiado y tendrá una mejor oportunidad de dormir por las noches.

Comentario de Gabriela Quiusky alumna de 12vo grado:

"Al haber sido parte del proyecto por tantos años, se ha vuelvo una parte muy importante de mis memorias del colegio. Recuerdo que al principio empezamos a hacer la primera mat solamente para presentar un proyecto en el STEAM fest de ese año, pero al ver que tanta gente estaba interesada, decidimos continuar. Desde ese ese momento supimos que este proyecto llegaría muy lejos; y así fue cuando miss Garcia y miss Serrano pudieron entregar una de las mats en Estados Unidos. Nuestro siguiente objetivo fue lograr donar al menos una colchoneta aquí.

Al elaborar tantas mats en estos años logramos motivar a mucha gente para que se nos uniera, lo cual fue una experiencia muy gratificante. Ahora que por fin logramos encontrar a alguien que nos ayude con la donación me pone muy feliz la idea de que al final logramos alcanzar la meta que nos habíamos propuesto hasta ya mucho tiempo y que logramos ayudar a la gente que lo necesitaba.

Espero que este proyecto se mantenga en el colegio durante muchos años, por que es una idea verdaderamente innovadora y que puede ayudar a muchos. Por esta misma razón intentaré llevarme este proyecto en mi universidad y empezar un club ayá. Las experiencias que he tenido al ser parte de este club estarán siempre conmigo."

Los alumnos sintieron una gran satisfacción al ver culminado el trabajo de varios años, al entregar formalmente su trabajo y que este sea finalmente utilizado y apreciado.


Puede ver el álbum de fotografías en éste enlace.

by: Gabriela Quiusky y LRC Team

 

Trabajos citados

Academia Británica Cuscatleca. “ABC Mission and Values.” ABC Portal, 22 June 2020.

STEAM Fest 2022-Top Projects

The STEAM Team has been crunching numbers and the final totals are now in! 

Top project developers were awarded special STEAM Fest prizes during the week in the LRC. 

The top projects are:

• Soda Rocket: Andres Urías and Isabel Urías
• Impact of Zinc Nitrate and Glucose on Yeast Growth and Trout Immunisation: Pablo Ventura and Maria Alessandra Casanovas
• Sustainable Origami: Alexia Hernández, Ana Hércules, and Brock Tidwell
• My Graphic Life Book: Atticus Lang
• HoverKart: Eduardo Urrutia and José Santiago Casanovas
• Reduction of Mould Growth for the Preservation of Bread: Catherine Kim, Emilio Armijo and Juan Pablo Benítez
• Topological Optimisation: André Mejía, Néstor Cáceres and Michael Romero
• Snickerdoodles-The Chemistry Behind Cooking: Ana Camila Puente and Jorge Silva
• Sustainable Homes: Ariana Sánchez, Mariana Valladares, Isabella Lindholm
• Agua Limpia y Saneamiento: Gabriel Cañénguez, Valentina Reynolds, Valentina Guerrero and Jonathan Rodríguez
• Acciones Climáticas: Juan Ortega and James Lin

A big thank you to all of the students who took part in STEAM Fest 2022.

Here is a link to the photo gallery

They really are STEAM Fest!

3D Design and Printing in MYP Design Lessons

 The 6th-grade students have worked very hard on their 3D Prosthetic solutions in  Design lessons. 

Throughout the unit, students researched mobility issues and solutions. They drew up plans, and schedules and discussed their chosen designs. They then designed their prostheses using these designs and Tinkercad 3D design software.

We spent a few weeks printing off the designs on our many LRC 3D printers. In some cases tweaks needed to happen first while other models needed deconstructing in order to print them off prior to reconstructing them post-printing. 

Students were able to handle their designs,  examine and test them prior to considering ways in which to further and improve them. Many also chose to decorate them using the 3Doodler pens, while others were planning to take them home for painting. The students really engaged with the 3D printing pens some even took them to the next level and began new 3D designs while others have spent every break since in the LRC working on a variety of 3D designs. 

One of the great things about additive manufacturing is that students create tangible objects based on their ideas and plans which can be handled as models, added to larger designs and compiled together to build solutions. The process brings further relevance to the work they do in class as the theoretical becomes tangible through the printing process. 

We have a nice collection of photographs from the later weeks of the project as well as a short video which we hope you will find interesting.

3d design by Jennifer Garcialrc

Letter Writing Pen Pal Project

 Two groups of 7th grade English students have been working very closely with the LRC on their letter-writing project, in which they explored the craft of letter writing and correspondence by traditional snail mail systems.  The paper was carefully prepared to make it look older, by staining it with a coffee wash and burning the edges (teachers did that!) with care.  Next, the students transferred their writing from the edited drafts to the prepared paper. They also constructed envelopes for their letters and even decorated them in some cases.

The next task was for students to design their own stamps to seal their envelopes with wax.  They spent a lesson in the LRC doing so using Tinkercad. The designs were then printed off using the LRC 3D printers. 

This was a great project which brought together writing, a look at some of the history of communication, 3D design, papercraft,3D printing and introduced students to the craft of using wax seals. The next task is to mail off the package of letters to our partner school in the UK and await the responses. Communication through snail mail is a bit of a foreign concept to our students so it should be an interesting experience for them to eventually receive their very own letters. 

Here is a short video that contains some of the highlights of the project. We have also uploaded a great many photos to our Flickr album for the project which we hope you will enjoy. 

The Letter Project

STEAM Fest Tribal STAR Winners1

 Students who visited  STEAM Fest last Friday collected stickers for each of the exhibits they visited and interacted with. Each stick was placed on a card and as students left the auditorium, they deposited these cards in tribal boxes. 

The Results are in. 

Well done to all the tribes and in particular to the Mayas for collecting the most stickers for the tribe at STEAM Fest 2022!

STEAM Fest 2022

 

It has been two very long years. In March of 2020 the team had just finished setting up the Auditorium and the Performing Arts Centre for our Annual STEAM Fest, when we were given the news. The government has closed all schools that afternoon due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a heartwrenching moment for all involved. 

Fast forward two years and a bit, to June 9th the day we took back STEAM Fest, the day we switched from a low-key, online fair to a fairly normal, in-person event. 

While this year's STEAM Fest was about half the size of the regular in-person event, it lacked nothing in terms of energy, commitment, creativity and learning.  The Auditorium was a buzz as of 7:00 am as set up began all the way until 1pm when the last items were put away, cleanup had taken place and everyone had been fed. 

• 

  At 8:20 the event began with a welcome by Mrs. Garcia, an introduction to our keynote speaker by Alexia Aguilar and the keynote speech given by Carlos Valladares, the president of El Salvador's Fab Lab association. 
• From 8:30 to 12:20 students from across Primary and Secondary visited the student exhibits as well as the 7 exhibits run by special guests. Students also took part in the various robotics, VR, game development and 3D printing workshops. In total there were 35 different projects exhibitions and workshops to explore.

87 students as well as staff members from both the LRC and ICT Departments prepared and participated in this year's event. 11th graders presented their own projects and also lead the event in their various roles as crew members. Students from 6th to 11th presented their STEAM fest projects individually as well as in small groups, while the music students treated everyone to about 5 hours of live performances. The resilience, the dedication and the energy devoted to this event by all are to be commended. 

The STEAM Team would very much like to thank everyone who was involved in making this year's STEAM Fest a huge success. They have again proven that effort does lead to success and it must be said that it is truly Great to be ABC!  

Special thanks need to go out to Mrs. Serrano for running a tight logistics ship and Alexia Aguilar and her crew for everything they did to make this a success! 

If you would like a real taste of the event you can peruse our many wonderful photos on Flickr as well as the ABC Facebook page, where you can also view the live Stream video recordings:

Recording 1

Recording 2

Recording 3

Semana del Bibliotecario Salvadoreño

 La semana del 23 al 28 de mayo celebramos la  XXXIII Semana Cultural del Bibliotecario Salvadoreño en colaboración con la Asociación de Bibliotecarios de El Salvador (ABES) y el Ministerio de Cultura. En el transcurso de dicha semana, se desarrollaron diferentes actividades conmemorativas y educativas, como seminarios web, talleres, conferencias, premiaciones y conversatorios, entre otros.

Como Academia Británica siempre participamos y apoyamos a la Asociación de Bibliotecarios, como parte de nuestra labor como escuela bilingüe comprometida con la sociedad salvadoreña en materia de bibliotecas, apoyando no sólo a sus estudiantes sino también a su comunidad para compartir conocimientos, experiencias y buenas prácticas que nos permitan enfrentar los retos globales.

Este año impartimos el taller ̈ Empoderando e Innovando en la Biblioteca con Herramientas Gratuitas,  el cual tuvo como principal motivación, la necesidad de mantenernos actualizados en un ambiente híbrido y cada vez con mayor impacto de la tecnología en nuestras actividades cotidianas, sin incurrir en gastos excesivamente altos. 

Dividimos nuestro taller en tres partes:  

• Herramientas utilizadas para la Comunicación
• Análisis de Datos 
• Aplicaciones útiles para Presentaciones

 Durante el taller, los bibliotecarios seleccionaron los temas más interesantes y aplicables en su propio entorno y aprendieron sobre las herramientas gratuitas que existen para apoyarles, entre las cuales se demostraron aplicaciones para crear blogs, uso de redes sociales para creación de comunidades, Google Sites, formularios y encuestas con Google Forms, inventarios y hojas para análisis de colecciones con Google Sheets, Google Slides, Canva y Genially para presentaciones tanto electrónicas como impresas o híbridas.

Fue una actividad muy enriquecedora e interesante, los participantes comentaron que los recursos, herramientas y todo lo aprendido lo compartirán en sus unidades de información, con colegas para enriquecer más las bibliotecas y a sus usuarios”. Además, se mostraron interesados y emocionados por el aprendizaje, por el uso que pueden darle a éstos conocimientos junto con sus usuarios. Finalmente mencionaron que estarán compartiendo con el equipo del LRC-ICT las actividades que realicen en sus respectivas bibliotecas.  

El pasado miércoles 25 de mayo, las bibliotecarias Judith Mendez y Melissa Hernández fueron seleccionadas por el Ministerio de Cultura de El Salvador para reconocer su labor en el ámbito bibliotecario a lo largo de su servicio a la comunidad.  Como bibliotecario fue juramentado Sergio Padilla como nuevo miembro de la Asociacíon de Bibliotecarios-ABES.

El reconocimiento dice lo siguiente: 

El Ministerio de Cultura a través de la Dirección Nacional de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Publicaciones tiene el honor de entregar el diploma a la trayectoria de Judith de Mendez y Melissa Hernández. En reconocimiento a una vida dedicada a la labor bibliotecaria y por su aporte a las presentes y futuras generaciones de bibliotecarios del país. Dado en el auditorio del Museo Nacional de Antropología Dr. David J. Guzmán, a los veinticinco días del mes de mayo de dos mil veintidós. Firmado por: Mariemm Pleitez Ministra de Cultura de El Salvador y Eric Doradea Viceministro de Cultura de El Salvador. 

Las bibliotecarias de la ABC se sienten muy agradecidas por ser un referente y por el aporte que brindan dentro de la comunidad bibliotecaria del país.

Para ver más fotos de la semana, dar clic aqui.