Going with the Flow
Water flows downhill. Easy, right?
In this activity, students will explore how landforms and flowing water interact using printed topographic maps, the hands-on Augmented Reality SandBox, and Google Earth. They will first examine a printed map to determine the direction of flow. The groups will split, and some will first recreate their landscape in the SandBox or use Google Earth to examine the topography and rivers in their maps region and switch.
Here, you will work as a group aiming to build your topographic map and your river in the Augmented Reality SandBox toolkit. The lesson below is written as instructions, read each section carefully. Go to the page for your group.
Each student will also get to explore these locations using Google Earth in Virtual Reality!
Watch the video and familiarize yourself with the SandBox
First go online and view the following YouTube video so you are able to movie the sand to match the topography. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yANkOVxzv-I
But how does the shape of the land affect the characteristics of a river, like it's shape? Can you interpret a topographic map to determine which way a river is flowing?
You will use Google Earth VR to get a unique perspective on two landscapes with very different charactistics and
how the landscape affects the rivers in the area.
Each participant will get to explore using the Google Earth VR individually during the exercises.
Get acquainted with the HTC Vive Virtual Reality System
The Vive is a room-scale virtual reality system that has a headset and two handheld controllers, allowing the user to interact with and be to
tally immersed in a virtual environment.
There will be two groups: Team 1 and Team 2, with the following workflow for each team:
Team 1
1. Read your map for the area and river.
2. Work in the SandBox.
3. Search for river site in Google Earth
Team 2
1. Read your map for the area and river.
2. Search for river site in Google Earth.
3. Work in the SandBox.