Monday, March 18, 2019

The Chemistry Merge Cube Project







Recently I was featured on a YouTube Live event for CoSpaces EDU with Michael Fricano to demo my Chemistry Merge Cube project that I created for middle school science.

Although, I used CoSpaces in the past, this was my first time using the Merge Cube add-on for it.  I just dove in and started to create my scenes and content for the project. 

I added three scenes which displayed a label to the chemistry topic, plus each scene had four questions.  Because I am a Google girl, I had to align it with a quiz that I created using Google Forms.  The Forms quiz had the same questions, plus I added a few more, and I set it up to release the grade to the students immediately. 

Additionally, I needed labels which were created using Google Drawings.  I was able to customize the formatting of the labels easily in Drawings.  When the labels were completed, I downloaded each one as a png file, then uploaded into the CoSpaces library.  This allowed me to reuse the labels in the project.   

Finally, I coded the space to allow the students to navigate through the scenes.  The students were able to go to the next scene or back to the previous screen.  As always, I love to code and I learned a lot using this platform. 

If you are interested in viewing the show, you can visit the YouTube link to watch the show.  Here is the link to my Chemistry project in CoSpaces.

If you really want to engage your students and immersive them with ARVRinEDU, 3D and 360 degree technology, I would highly recommend creating an account for CoSpacesEDU.  I am fortunate enough to have a school subscription for this tool that includes the Merge Cube add-on, but if you want to try it for free, use the promo code of  COSMICHAELFR.  You will get a 30 day free trial.



Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Did you know about this Google Classroom update?



The Google for Education team has listened to all of the feedback from their users and has provided a few more new features in the latest Google Classroom update.



First, you are now able to move posts to the top on the Stream page, (not on the Classwork page).  Simply click on the 3 dot menu of the post and select 'Move to the Top'.  Now, the Stream page can be organized by putting the most recent assignment or announcement to the top.  


Additionally, you can now control how to setup classroom notifications simply by going into the setting menu, select 'Classroom on the Stream' in the General section, and choosing one of three options.  

  • Hide notifications (no classwork notifications will appear on the Stream page).
  • Show condensed notifications (show collapsed view).
  • Show attached and details (show expanded view).
You can read more about this update in the Google Classroom help forum community. 

Keep sending the team feedback by clicking on the ? at the bottom of the screen in Google Classroom.  They are always listening and prioritizing the feedback to improve Google Classroom.