Elizabeth Forward Middle School’s new SMALLab for embodied learning received some great coverage in eSchool News:

In an Elizabeth Forward Middle School classroom, students in an eighth-grade math class spent a recent morning getting into their lesson—literally.

Standing in their socks on a 15-by-15 game board that was projected onto a foam mat on the floor, they waved wands to move brightly colored virtual balls around the space.

They used trial-and-error to figure out what each colored ball did when it came into contact with another.

Did one ball bumping another cause it to multiply? Or did one eliminate another?

The students strove to develop a strategy to beat their opponents.

What they end up doing, educators say, is honing skills related to reasoning, decision-making, and critical thinking.

The teaching tactic is called embodied learning. It blends lessons and human-computer interaction.

Elizabeth Forward educators are implementing it with Situated Multimedia Arts Learning Lab, known as SMALLab Learning, which uses a ceiling-mounted projector, motion-sensor cameras, wands, and a computer to create scenarios in which students can learn by immersing themselves in the lesson.

The district is the first public school system in Pennsylvania to use this educational technology, developed at Arizona State University.

“It’s about getting students out of the standard desk and up and moving,” said Todd Keruskin, Elizabeth Forward’s assistant superintendent.

A $20,000 grant from the Allegheny County Intermediate Unit and the Grable Foundation helped fund the technology, which cost $35,000 and is new to the district this year. The district paid the balance.

Teachers in all subjects trained on the program, so anyone can incorporate it into a lesson plan.

“It’s as much about how the teacher drives discussion as it is about the game itself,” said Bart Rocco, superintendent.

Read the whole story at eSchool News.

Thanks to Network Member Norton Gusky for sharing this bit of news.