EAST PROJECTS
T C A P M I G I B A E K A M
If you have ever experienced an injury that has required occupational therapy, think back to how monotonous those visits could be, not to mention the set of exercises the therapist requires to be done at home. Now imagine meeting with an occupational therapist who says that the healing process will not only be enhanced but engaging. Blake Battles and Dillon Hall have been working for almost two years to make this virtual experience a reality for elementary school students in the district who receive occupational therapy. Blake and Dillon are two EAST students at South Side Bee Branch High School who in 2017 began creating a virtual reality (VR) app to help those in need of occupational therapy enhance their hand-eye coordination and strengthen their visual motor integration. During their first year in EAST at South Side, Blake approached Dillon about working together on a project that was inspired by watching other students at EAST Night Out, in another school district, use an egg carton and a ping pong ball to demonstrate hand-eye coordina10
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tion. Blake recounts how the project and partnership originated: “I approached Dillon about forming a partnership and designing our own hands-on project. Mrs. (Julie) Nelson, our EAST Facilitator, suggested we make an appointment with our school Occupational Therapist, Mr. Marcus Hutto. After meeting with Mr. Hutto, it soon became apparent he already had plenty of paper-and-pencil and game-type hands-on activities. While eating lunch in EAST one day, we discussed the possibility of incorporating VR into our project to make it more sophisticated. We decided to make a VR handwriting game. Mr. Hutto suggested doing something involving hand-eye coordination, that would help strengthen visual motor integration. After brainstorming ideas, we pitched the idea of developing a game that included different sports themes, levels of intensity, and various sports equipment that could be used virtually.” While using the virtual reality headset, Oculus, and Unity, a game design software, Blake and Dillon de-
signed a program to assist students who have trouble with visual motor integration caused by a limited acuity, visual perception deficits, or a poor fine or gross motor ability. With Nelson’s guidance and support, Blake and Dillon have written and received funding from two grants to help them purchase items they need in the Unity Asset store – a digital store where users can buy plugins to enhance their software design experience. With these purchases, the two students began beta testing in December 2018 with the
