Tip of the Week: Shambles at the Palace of Versailles Simulation

Times are tough. Teachers are getting fewer and fewer opportunities to take kids on field trips. You just can’t hop a plane and head out to the Gettysburg battlefield or the Palace of Versailles like you used to.

But the good news is if you can’t get to Versailles, Versailles can get to you. With a bit of help from Google, the Palace of Versailles now comes in 3D.

The new this summer Versailles 3D website offers you and your kids the chance to explore and experience the Palace in all of its 3D glory. Have fun browsing through views of the Palace throughout history as if you were there at the time. With Google’s help and its modified Street View, you can also “visit” and tour the Palace as it looks today.

Plus you get the added bonus of a nifty history sim that lets you build the Place piece by piece:

Hardouin-Mansart, Le Vau, Lully, Colbert, La Palatine and the King himself ask for your help to build Versailles! Use your skills to reconstruct the hydraulic system for watering the gardens, help the King to get out of the celebrated labyrinth in the gardens, plant a French-style formal garden and fill the Royal Menagerie . . .

Sound effects, helpful tips from historical characters, your own Moleskin-looking binder to keep notes in and learn more . . . it’s a very rich experience.

You also have the ability to print out the Palace in its various stages of construction. I’m not talking about just printing the image, I’m talking about printing pieces of the Palace that your kids can cut and paste together for a real, actual 3D effect.

The site also have some sweet videos that take advantage of the 3D models to tell the historical story of the Palace.

World history teachers need to be all over this. Have fun!