Alice in the Classroom

Teachers are using more video and media in the classroom. Many are using animation and simulations, as well. These often help students understand and apply new content and ideas. But how about teaching students to create their own animations and simulations?

Alice, a free 3D programming application created by famed author and computer Science professor Randy Pausch of The Last Lecture, is a great way to teach students difficult programming skills in a fun way. Students can walk through the simple tutorial and examples and then begin creating 3D animated movies, simulations, or video games.

This is great for the classroom because of all the possibilities. Students can use Alice to:

- Recreate a scene from a novel in Language Arts
- Make a video game that gets students to answer Math problems
- Make a simulation that tests a Scientific theory
- Create dialoge between two characters in a foreign language class
- Make a real or fake news segments about a current event in Social Studies
- Create a public service announcement about healthy eating habits for PE

There a many more applications of the program, these are just a few. For a full write-up of a project that this author completed with 6th graders, look up the September/October issue of Learning & Leading with Technology (page 32).