10/6/2008Merrylee Primary
The 'Adventure Rock' team with Merrylee Primary Principal Teacher, Mrs Irene Sutherland
One of eight in the whole of UK to be chosen for BBC research project.
Children In Virtual Worlds
A trip to London as a guest of the BBC is a dream for some but it became a reality for Merrylee Primary Principal Teacher, Mrs. Irene Sutherland.
She was invited to attend the very first 'Children In Virtual Worlds' conference which took place in the University of Westminster.
This was the result of the hard work and enthusiasm shown by Mrs Sutherland and a team of pupils from Merrylee Primary who took part in a research project by the University of Westminster in conjunction with the BBC.
Merrylee Primary School was one of only eight schools in the whole of the UK to be chosen to take part in this research which involved attending two workshops at the new BBC studios in Glasgow where they worked alongside Professor Lizzie Jackson from the University.
The children were asked to trial a new CBBC 'virtual world' game for children called "Adventure Rock".
For four weeks, the children played the game online, kept a diary and emailed BBC researchers about their findings.
At the second workshop, the pupils, Sam Wood, Kia Ghobadi, Jennifer Dall, Stewart Neil, Beth Barnes, Adam Nimmo, Hibatullah Khane, Niamh Martin-McGarrigle, Helen Scott and Amy Peoples spoke about their findings whilst being filmed by the cameraman from Blue Peter!
"The children from Merrylee Primary School were fantastic. It's great they were able to be involved in the testing of an important new game for CBBC, and in researching how children play online games and engage with virtual worlds for the University of Westminster.
They were an extremely creative group," said Lizzie Jackson, University Research Fellow and Peter Davis, CBBC.
Mrs Sutherland said: "The children were amazing. Their imaginations were incredible. They had to design their own avatar and create their own imaginary land. The children really embarked on this project, working together, even arranging evening sessions at each other's houses.
"I was quite lost at times listening to their technical talk during our regular meetings in school.
"At the Workshops at the BBC, the children stood in front of the camera and spoke confidently and clearly. I was so proud of each one of them."
The BBC and the University were so impressed by the enthusiasm and effort of Merrylee Primary during the project that Mrs Sutherland was asked to address an international audience of 300 people at the 'Children In Virtual Worlds' conference in London, relating her experiences with the children as they participated in the project.
Her talk was a great success and the audience was obviously impressed as many more offers of similar projects have been made to the school.
Children In Virtual Worlds
A trip to London as a guest of the BBC is a dream for some but it became a reality for Merrylee Primary Principal Teacher, Mrs. Irene Sutherland.
She was invited to attend the very first 'Children In Virtual Worlds' conference which took place in the University of Westminster.
This was the result of the hard work and enthusiasm shown by Mrs Sutherland and a team of pupils from Merrylee Primary who took part in a research project by the University of Westminster in conjunction with the BBC.
Merrylee Primary School was one of only eight schools in the whole of the UK to be chosen to take part in this research which involved attending two workshops at the new BBC studios in Glasgow where they worked alongside Professor Lizzie Jackson from the University.
The children were asked to trial a new CBBC 'virtual world' game for children called "Adventure Rock".
For four weeks, the children played the game online, kept a diary and emailed BBC researchers about their findings.
At the second workshop, the pupils, Sam Wood, Kia Ghobadi, Jennifer Dall, Stewart Neil, Beth Barnes, Adam Nimmo, Hibatullah Khane, Niamh Martin-McGarrigle, Helen Scott and Amy Peoples spoke about their findings whilst being filmed by the cameraman from Blue Peter!
"The children from Merrylee Primary School were fantastic. It's great they were able to be involved in the testing of an important new game for CBBC, and in researching how children play online games and engage with virtual worlds for the University of Westminster.
They were an extremely creative group," said Lizzie Jackson, University Research Fellow and Peter Davis, CBBC.
Mrs Sutherland said: "The children were amazing. Their imaginations were incredible. They had to design their own avatar and create their own imaginary land. The children really embarked on this project, working together, even arranging evening sessions at each other's houses.
"I was quite lost at times listening to their technical talk during our regular meetings in school.
"At the Workshops at the BBC, the children stood in front of the camera and spoke confidently and clearly. I was so proud of each one of them."
The BBC and the University were so impressed by the enthusiasm and effort of Merrylee Primary during the project that Mrs Sutherland was asked to address an international audience of 300 people at the 'Children In Virtual Worlds' conference in London, relating her experiences with the children as they participated in the project.
Her talk was a great success and the audience was obviously impressed as many more offers of similar projects have been made to the school.
I attended Merrylee many, many years ago and now live in Atlanta, US. I have very fond memories of the school and am delighted to know the school is still thriving and obviously turning out first-rate pupils. I have just found this web-site and will continune to follow the school's progress. I wish you much success! Gordon Williams