EEEK - Coronavirus stuck in home - time to visit B4K

So you are quarantined? So you are stuck at home? Don't stay home. Visit B4K! Log in, make an avatar and wait for me to let you off the main island. I am logging in daily according to the posted schedule. Be there!

New Office Hours

I took the summer off most of the time but I'm restarting office hours. I will be "inworld" in Biome4kids regularly. Check the calendar to the right for times. Otherwise send me an email at drclowe@gmail.com and I will meet you there.

Latest and Greatest Updates! Guinea Pigs Read On!

ADULTS (including parents) can join us at VWBPE (Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education) conference in the virtual world Second Life where the Biome4Kids folks (Clowey Greenwood and Elsie Ocello) will be presenting "If They Build It, They Will Come!" The presentation is about how kids can learn science by creating in a virtual world (i.e., Biome4Kids). For information on how ADULTS (ages 18 and up) can log in to the conference, email me at drclowe@gmail.com or go to http://secondlife.com, create an account, download the program, search for VWBPE Lecture Area A and choose <teleport>.  Be sure to get there a little early because there are a lot of folks there. Warning: Some of them may look really strange like dragons, robots or really crazy women. No problem. They are almost all educators and are all dressed (no adult only type content).

KIDS! I need some guinea pigs (maybe I need to make a guinea pig avatar) to log into Biome4Kids and do some building for the presentation. I will take snapshots of you building your first creations to use on my slide show. How fun is that! But to get you into the Biome4Kids virtual world, you can either follow the directions or I will walk you through step by step in a live presentation using the zoom app on your phone or tablet, or http://zoom.us on your browser. I will post the times and code in the calendar. I will also record it for you to look at later and post it in a blog post here.

On another note, Clowey was part of a virtual world talk show where Biome4Kids is discussed. See it here:

I had really awesome platinum hair updo and a purple pants suit but they wouldn't teleport to the show. I ended up bald with an invisible body. So I had to change at the last minute. I really hate my hair! I'm the one with the short red hair. Vanity, vanity. In Biome4Kids I'm usually a panda.

Biocaching!

There's a new fun activity for kids of all ages (differential assignments for different ages). I call it Biocaching. You get a set of coordinates and you have to find the animal. For example there's an animal on the Biome4Kids Island with coordinates 233.5, 99.5, 30.2. Once you find that animal (pictured below) you would list either a) the name, or b) the name and basic classification, or c) the name and complete classification or d) all of the above plus the scientific name (if you can figure it out).

So the answer to this one would be:

a) Frog

b) Frog, amphibian

c) Frog: Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Subphylum Vertebrata, Class Amphibia

d) All of the above plus the scientific name and I'm not sure what kind of frog this is. Good luck with this one (some of the others are much easier)

Get Ready for Some FUN!!! PARTY!!!!

Put this on your calendar! On Saturday November 7 from 4pm to 7pm EST* we will have a Biome4Kids party. There will be meeting others, learning, a building exhibit (kind of like a competition but not), and other fun activities. I plan on having some new avatars available then - it's a secret - not telling you what. If you are a teacher in B4K find some kids to bring in! Make sure to fill out an application so I know who is who.

* be sure to convert to your timezone.

Kids Learning about Renewable and Non-Renewable Resources

Amy Pihlainen's (Elsie Ocello) 8th graders of the Au Train-Onota school built demonstrations of renewable and non-renewable resources on Imaginaria the did live presentations. Laura Briggs (Cyndyl Enyo) and I were able to be online just at the right time and watch the presentations. The building was impressive and the students' knowledge even more so.

I gave a Webinar yesterday for the ISTE (International Society for Technology Education) Mobile Learning Network Mondays Mini-Conference about Biome4Kids. It went well and there are more people interested now from across the US. I am hoping to get more people involved so kids can meet kids and the collaboration can lead to more learning and interaction. You can see the recording HERE.

I am changing the subtitle from "Learning Science..." to "Learning..." since we now have a social studies island (Werowocomoco) and hope to soon have a literacy island created by a teacher in Wisconsin with help from any other teachers interested (and kids of course).

The Deerton kids have been building projects concerning on renewable and non-renewable resources on Imaginaria. I was trying to move the food web to Biosphere but kind of messed it up. I have to work on it.

On another note I am converting Seaborgia to an additional building island since that seems to be what we need.

I am also updating my times online so you can count on me being there. I hope to see you soon. Clowey :)