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Lesson 4 - Communicate About Building a Model

To encourage students to have fun on the Web while learning about Communicate About Building a Model, here are some games and interactive activities they can do on their own or in pairs.

Goal

Write clear instructions for building a model from a picture.

Builds Upon

Student Book pages 308-309

Instructions for Use

Connecting Cubes lets students build a model.

To use Connecting Cubes, have students find a simple picture of an object to reproduce using building cubes.

Click the stamp icon to place cubes on the workspace. Use the hand icon to move the cubes. Click on the cube and lighting button, and then click on the two cubes in a train to separate them. Click on the eraser icon to erase cubes. And click on the broom to start over.

Isometric Drawings is a complex program that prompts students to build shapes.

To use Isometric Drawings remember to construct the shape from back to front, or from bottom to top. Select and drag a cube or rhombus from the column, and place them on the work area. Click on the work area to drop the shape. Using the white arrow icon, from the top row, move the shape to any location. The red, yellow and blue arrows move the shape diagonally, or up and down, along the axes. Click on the eye icon to view the shapes from different perspectives. A separate pop-up window lets students rotate the shapes by moving the sliders. To rotate a base, click on the blue and red circular icon. To rotate a shape vertically, click on the yellow circular icon.

To change the colour of a face, edge, or cube, use the paintbrush icon. To change the colour of a face, click on a colour in the colour palette, then click on the rhombus icon from the column, and finally click on the face in the work area. To change the colour of an edge, click on a colour in the colour palette, then click on the pink line from the column, and finally click on the edge to be coloured in the work area. To change the colour of a cube, click on a colour in the colour palette, then click on the cube icon from the column, and finally click on the cube in the work area.

To change a cube into faces, click on the explode button - the blue, red, and yellow cube on the top row, and then on the cube in the work area.