View Mars in 3D and How To Make 3D Glasses

Mars 3D is a NASA website that features a gallery of images of Mars that can be viewed with 3D glasses. The gallery contains dozens of images to explore in 3D. If you don't have 3D glasses NASA directions for making your own 3D glasses at home or at school. NASA provides a PDF to print as the template for the glasses and the rest of the materials are easily found in stores if you don't already have them.

Applications for Education
Mars 3D could provide a fun way for students to explore and learn about Mars. Additionally, the process of making their own 3D glasses could be a good way for students to learn about the technology of 3D imagery.

3D Views of Famous Landmarks

Last month Google introduced 3D photo tours of famous landmarks in Google Maps. If you haven't had a chance to check them out yet, Tekzilla gives you a quick overview in the video below. The 3D photo tours in Google Maps is a great option for geography teachers and history teachers as well as literature teachers who want their students to explore places mentioned in the books their students read.

3D Toad - 3D 360 Degree Educational Images

3D Toad is a nice site that hosts images that viewers can zoom-in on and rotate 360 degrees. The site is designed to provide educators and students with images that are useful for instruction. In the galleries of images include history, geology, chemistry, skeletons, fossils, and more. Click and hold on any image to rotate it. Double click to zoom-in on it. Each image is accompanied by a short caption. The video below offers a short introduction to 3D Toad.



Applications for Education
3D Toad offers a couple of video examples of how teachers might use the images. I've embedded one of those videos below.

The Center for Civil War Photography Features 3D Images

The Center for Civil War Photography is a great place to find photo essays about the US Civil War. A lot of websites offer images of the Civil War, but what makes The Center for Civil War Photography different is that they offer 3D images in their photo essays about the Civil War. Of course, to view the images in 3D you'll need a pair of cheap 3D glasses, but otherwise you can access the content for free. If you can't get ahold of some 3D glasses, don't worry because The Center for Civil War Photography has some nice photo essays that don't include 3D images.

You can get some cheap 3D glasses from Amazon.

Applications for Education
The Center for Civil War Photography's 3D images provide a good way for students to examine records of the Civil War in more detail than before. One of my classes is currently working on a visual history of the Civil War project (I'll blog about it next week), these images could bring a new engaging element to their research.

ZooBurst - 3D Augmented Reality Books

ZooBurst is a new website that offers an exciting free service. ZooBurst allows users to create 3D pop-up books using nothing more than public domain clip art and ZooBurst's web-based editing tools. Users can view ZooBurst 3D books in augmented reality by enabling their webcams (click webcam mode) then clicking the ZB button present on each story. View a ZooBurst book below.


ZooBurst is still in a closed beta period, but is accepting requests for beta testers. Hopefully, it will soon be open to everyone.

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for sharing this great resource.

Applications for Education
ZooBurst could be a fun new way for students to create digital stories. ZooBurst could be particularly fun for fiction stories like myths and fairy tales.

Arounder - 360 Degree Tours of Cities and the Moon

Arounder is a free site that offers 3D views of famous places in European cities, North American locations, and the Moon. The imagery is very clear and detailed. Visitors can explore 360 degrees of each image using the simple navigation tools that appear at the bottom of every image. When you're on the Arounder homepage click on a city to see a map of that city. Then click on the red(ish) placemark icons to explore the imagery.












I learned about Arounder from a post on Make Use Of.

Applications for Education
Arounder reminds me of 360 Cities. Both services provide very clear 3D imagery that could be a good supplement to other virtual tours your students explore on Google Maps or Google Earth.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
360 Degree View From the Peak of Mount Everest
Tour the Sistine Chapel Online
Create a National Parks Virtual Tour