Teachers in the Isle of Man are seeing SketchUp as one of the most important pieces of educational software for creativity and motivation. They are using it to support work right across the curriculum and not just in the area of design technology. We are already seeing SketchUp creations being imported into Photoshop and animations being brought into iMovie where soundtracks can be added - there's literally no end to the educational value of SketchUp!
Above is a model of the Laxey Wheel created by a 10yr old pupil of Laxey School in the Isle of Man. It illustrates the way young students (some as young as 5yrs old) take to SU. Further information on the Laxey Wheel can be found here
"We use Sketchup with children
as young as 5years of age. The program needs very little introduction, children produce
results very quickly and many make very rapid progress. We have found that SketchUp allows
children who have difficulty expressing themselves in more conventional ways to produce
work that far exceeds the expectations of their teachers. We've already had great results
with children suffering from autism. SketchUp's ability to draw in perspective view makes
it very easy for young children to conceptualize their thoughts.
These boxes are typical of 'Desgn Technology' work carried out by primary age (5yrs - 10yrs) children who go on to make the boxes they have designed. We get the children to design the art work for the packaging in AppleWorks or a painting program first which they save as jpegs and import (actually just drag and drop) into SU.
Below are some light houses created my students
SketchUp continues to inspire many children on the Isle Of Man
John Thornley
j.thornley@doe.gov.im
Isle of Man Department of Education
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