Programming virtual camel races

A VR project for the National Day of the United Arab Emirates

Ronan Mc Nicholl is Head of Primary Informations and Communications Technology at an English speaking school in Dubai. In this article, he talks about using CoSpaces to code virtual reality camel races with his students.

Today is the 45th National Day of the United Arab Emirates. To celebrate this event, a selection of 9–11-year-old pupils from Jumeirah English Speaking School Dubai created their own virtual reality experiences using CoSpaces. They completed these projects within an isolated two-hour session.

Sample UAE National Day Project created using CoSpaces

Step 1: Planning and CoSpaces Orientation

Pupils viewed the following sample project using a VR Headset to learn about virtual reality and to experience the potential of CoSpaces. They were hooked!

Following this, the children were eager to experience the CoSpaces authoring environment for themselves. So a short focused task was set to allow them time for exploration. They learned so much in a matter of minutes!

Step 2: Success Criteria and Environment Modelling

The following slide was used to establish basic success criteria for the project:

Success Criteria

The pupils then set to work on creating their spaces. They were able to work independently as the environment was both user friendly and intuitive.

Step 3: Programming

The newly accessible JavaScript API was a fantastic moment in the development of this project. This was the moment the children were truly hooked as they realized they could program events within their space. It was the ‘wow’ factor as they understood they had the tools at their disposal to create anything.

The following sample code was shared with the students:

Sample Code

This was annotated on the board to reinforce the use of the following concepts: objects, variables and methods. It also provided the opportunity to teach syntax and debugging. As the children had little exposure to JavaScript programming beyond CodeCombat, it was considered unrealistic to expect them to instantly and independently start using the JavsScript API. So for this first project, it was fine for the children to copy and modify the code above. One student realized he could easily add and program a fourth camel.

Step 4: Testing — the fun part!

Here are links to a few of the spaces that our children created:

The video below shows two of our children in their National Day clothing testing out their creations.

Final Comments

This project was very exciting! It quickly became clear how CoSpaces can be integrated into lots of subject areas and curriculum topics. We have already planned our next project having experienced so much success with this one!!

Happy Birthday to the UAE!

Ronan Mc Nicholl