The Australian Connection
On December 13th from 5:00 pm
until 6:00 pm several Davis Creek Elementary fifth grade students, along
with Mrs. Simon, Mrs. Hamilton, and parents, made contact with Mr. Malcolm
Dow's 5th grade class in Melbourne, Australia. The Davis Creek Elementary
students had been communicating with Mr. Dow's students through email.
The Australian students had recently made a VCR tape of their school and
introduced themselves to their DC "Cyberpals". As part of our NASA
Outreach Grant, Davis Creek Elementary students had built a robotics rover
similar to the Mars Pathfinder. Using software that communicates
between computers the students at Armadale Primary School in Australia
were able to drive our robot. The robot features a Connectix camera
that allowed them to "see" our West Virginia students and our computer
lab. Another feature of the software is instant messaging which allows
messages to be typed back and forth between the two stations. Mr.
Dow's 5th grade class will be ending their current school year on Friday,
December 18. They will return to school in February after their "summer"
break. We hope to extend our experience by scheduling a robotics
"driving" session with Mr. Dow's new class in early spring.
These students are
our Australian 5th grade friends from Armadale Primary School in Melbourne.
Mr. Dow, their teacher, took his computer to school to connect with our
Mars Red Rover Earth Site software. They were able to "drive" our
robot vehicle and "see" us via the Connectix camera mounted on top the
vehicle. Students on both sides of the world had a terrific experience.
For the Armadale students it was 9:00 am Monday morning; for Davis Creek
students it was 5:00 pm Sunday evening!
More pictures
DC Contact!
Black & White Contact
Davis Creek
LEGO links '98-99
LEGO
Links
of Linda Hamilton
Davis
Creek Elementary LEGO SiteMap
Created 12-15-98
S. Simon
