Grace Christian Academy given High-tech 3D Rover

Published 7:45 am Saturday, May 10, 2014

Rotary President, Gerard Kwilecki, second from left, watches a training session at Grace Christian Academy, where teaching staff learn how to use the new 3-D Rover.

Rotary President, Gerard Kwilecki, second from left, watches a training session at Grace Christian Academy, where teaching staff learn how to use the new 3-D Rover.

Grace Christian Academy is the latest school to receive of a 3-D Rover from the Bainbridge Rotary Club. They received the equipment the first part of March, and following  training, have been using it daily.
The 3-D imaging console created by ViziTech, USA uses technology to make learning more interactive and fun for students. The Rover is especially great for teaching science courses. Students can watch as the teacher changes the image, expanding it for greater detail. A cell can be broken down into different parts and the parts then magnified so the students can view them in detail.
Charlie Stickland, Head of Grace Christian, said the 3-D Rover has revolutionized the upper level courses taught there, and actually has applications for most of the grade levels. “Our teachers have been using it since day one,” he explained.
Other schools that have benefitted from the Rotary Club presentations are Bainbridge High School, which was the first, Hutto Middle School, and now Grace.
A fully integrated and portable classroom system with 3D projector and associated software, including 3D powered viewing glasses, can cost as much as $10,000. Most of the money is raised at Rotary’s annual “Casino Night.”
Stewart Rodeheaver, CEO of ViziTech USA is a retired Army brigadier general who has assembled existing technologies from military and other sources to create ViziTech USA. He believes it not only helps students learn, but they retain it longer. He cites informal observations of fourth-grade students who retain facts such as the rotational direction of a specific planet as long as a week after seeing it in the classroom.

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