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About Virtown
Virtown is a project established, managed and lead by Conor Griffin, a primary school teacher in Convent of Mercy, Newport, Tipperary.
Conor started the project in 2019 in an effort to make maths and STEM subjects more engaging for primary school children. The project has gone from strength to strength the last number of years, growing the teachers involved in the Virtown Network and has won awards and funding from the EU, SEI and the NDRC. This past February Conor presented and delivered a lecture and workshop entitled "Virtown: Learning Maths by Building Digital Towns" at the CESI education conference in Atlantic Technological University, Galway.
Walking tour - Virtown: Newport Convent, created by 5th class Newport Convent, Tipperary.
Virtown aims to improve numeracy and engagement in maths in primary schools using project based learning (PBL).
Virtown allows primary school maths students to use the maths concepts they study on the curriculum (measurements, money, area, data etc) to design and create a virtual town, a Virtown; encouraging the children to apply the maths they learn in class to the real world.
How does Virtown work?
Students use the maths learned in class (e.g. area, perimeter, addition, subtraction etc) to design their buildings using blueprint paper and Virtown stickers
Example: "VirtBucks Café" created by Orlagh
Paper plans are converted into 2D floor plans by Conor
Example: Orlagh's designs for "VrtBucks Café" converted into 2D floorplans
Finished 3D model is built by Conor and inserted into the town
Example: "VirtBucks Café" as completed 3D model.
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Like residents of all thriving cosmopolitan cities, Virtonians enjoy a cup of coffee to start their day. The town had been growing rapidly and Virtonians were often heard around the town complaining of having to jump in the car and get on the M9 motorway to Capital City to get their fresh brew.
Orlagh spotted this niche in the market and decided to create a café in Virtown: Newport Convent. Using the maths she had learned in school, Orlagh set about planning a new café for the town.
Using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division she was soon able to select furniture from the Virtown catalogue and budget for a comfortable decor for the café's customers.
Completing the planning permission and getting it approved by the notoriously fickle Virtonian Planning Authority (VPA) was no problem as Orlagh could use what she had learned in school about perimeter, area and co-ordinates to correctly fill out all the paperwork.
Example : Virtbucks Café
Viewing Virtbucks Café
Join the Virtown Network
Schools wishing the get involved in Virtown can complete the following steps:
1) Complete the contact form below with your name and school details.
2) Conor will make contact with you to arrange a Zoom call to introduce teachers to Virtown, sign them up to the Virtown Network along with other teachers using Virtown in their classes and scheduling training on how to use Virtown.
3) The "Virtown : Class Resource Pack" will be sent to the school by post.
4) Teachers complete the 6-week project in their class - working with Conor as they go.
5) At the end of the 6 week project, the children's work is returned by post and their work is uploaded to the Virtown site.
Contact us
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Pilot
We are currently running a pilot of Virtown with 5th class in Newport Convent, Tipperary.
To see our the pilot, click here to visit the webpage - visit Virtown: Newport Convent
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