ChurchBuilder
Church Builder is 3D Computer Environment created by Brian Farrimond of the School of Computing at Liverpool Hope University. It allows children at Key Stage 2 to create virtual models of Churches and Cathedrals.
Description of Church Builder
Church Builder is a piece of software aimed at primary school children aged between 9 and 11 years (Years 5 and 6 in the UK). The developers' objective is to produce a 3D modelling tool that children could learn to use in 15 minutes, yet creating realistic, complex models quickly.
3D models are increasingly used to visualize objects for presentation in schools, and the ACTIVE creative engagement with such ICT materials is recognized as beneficial to developing multiple intelligences in children. Normally such software is difficult to master, especially for children. However, due to the fact that Church Builder's primitives deal with church elements, such as naves, transepts etc., rather than polygons and boxes, the creation of specific 3D models can be almost immediate.
The current version of the software provides the first component of a tool kit which can be used for modelling a range of types of buildings including churches, castles and palaces that can be placed in virtual worlds, modelling the heritage of the locality and which can be shared across Europe via the World Wide Web.
Software Construction and Underlying Principles
Church Builder has minimal system requirements, and is basically a tool treating the underlying data of the 3D models as a tree structure of nodes, consisting of parameterized representations of the components of the objects being modeled. The tool automatically generates graphics primitives that enable the visualization of and interaction with the object, allowing children to rapidly build sophisticated model church structures
Published Articles
- Farrimond, B., Bonar-Law, J. & Hetherington, R., 2007, Kiddy Cad: A Child-Friendly Parametric Approach for 3D Modelling Software, Computer Aided Design & Applications, Vol 4, Nos 1-4, available at:
http://www.kiddycad.com/CAD07%20Paper%20026%20Kiddy%20CAD%20submitted%2031Mar2007.pdf