Bay View Students Learn About Rising Sea Levels

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI—Picture a wooden sandbox on a cart. Add a computer under the cart. Put something that looks like a projector above. That’s an Augmented Reality Sandbox, AR Sandbox, for short, and Bay View Academy Lower and Middle School students were able to use one in their own classroom, thanks to Zephyr Education Foundation, based in Woods Hole, Mass.

As its name implies, the AR Sandbox is much more than a children’s toy. It’s an Interactive Topographic Modeling System that allows the students to create topography models by shaping real sand. The AR Sandbox includes a sensor that detects distance and translates the numbers into a contoured topographic map. The map's projected in real time onto the sand. In other words, students can push around sand in the box to see how it affects the topographical map.

Photo Caption: Hands in the Sand: left to right: Kaylie Porter, of East Providence, Amirah Woodruff, of East Providence, Aria Jordan, of Providence, Olivia Coelho and Lindsey Williams, both of East Providence. Credit: Ann Swain

When the sand is moved, anything below “sea level” gets filled in with blue (water). The AR Sandbox also shows changes to the land above “sea level” on an elevation color map. The children can watch the map both on the 3D model they're making in the sand and on a projection screen.

The screen component provides students a chance to compare their 3D model to a 2D topographic map, and allows a whole classroom to see what is happening in the sandbox. In addition to elevation, students can make it “rain,” and create tsunamis, storm surges and even change sea level (to simulate sea level rise).

According to Robert Reynolds, founder of Zephyr Education Foundation, the AR Sandbox is in several museums as a hands-on exhibit. It’s also been on loan to schools on Cape Cod; however, Bay View Academy was the first in Rhode Island to use the equipment. Zephyr loaned the equipment to the Academy for a week in December.

“The system is a perfect tool for teaching land forms, continental drift, erosion, sea level rise and more.” says Dr. Kathryn Eller, of Barrington, Bay View science teacher.

“Firstly, students used the AR sandbox to watch how contour lines relate to a slope's steepness and height," she said. "Secondly, girls put a model of Cape Cod into the VR sandbox and created rain storms, sea surges and altered sea level to observe how these would impact Cape Cod over time. Then, we put a model of a submarine canyon into the AR sandbox and observed how water flowed down the canyon into lower regions. Finally, in small boxes, students used sand to recreate models from contour maps of Narragansett Bay and placed these in the AR sandbox like a jigsaw puzzle and observed how parts of the bay appeared when colorized with the system.”

Eller says that students learned a lot during the AR Sandbox’s stay at Bay View. They now have a more comprehensive understanding of topographic maps and watersheds. They learned to make a 3D model into a 2D map and vice versa, and gained understanding of ocean features. Because of the lessons with the AR Sandbox, they have a better understanding of how land-use and pollution influence ocean systems.

To bring the lessons home, students were challenged to consider the possible effects of rising sea level and water temperature on endangered species at nearby Cape Cod, Stellwagen Bank and Georges Bank.

Sixth-grader Olivia Coelho liked seeing a model of Cape Cod.

“It was a really good learning experience,” added her classmate, Caroline Moonan, of Cranston.

Photo Credit: Ann Swain
Photo Caption: Making it Rain: leftmost, Caroline Moonan, of Cranston, Sarah Trosin, of Coventry, Hannah Parisella, of Hope, and Lindsey Williams, of East Providence.Dr. Eller (Barrington)