Acalanes High School junior Marc Davis, a member of Troop 204 of Lafayette, recently completed a unique Eagle Project. Recalling his memorable docent-led walking tour of Lafayette in third grade, a rite of passage for all Lafayette third graders, Marc decided to make that experience available to all residents of Lafayette through his passion for iPhone App programming.
With the Lafayette Historical Society on board, Marc and his cadre of scouts and other youth were treated to a docent led tour on which they took photos, marked GPS coordinates, and recorded verbal information for the App. They also researched and collected old photos from the Historical Society to include in the final product. Marc took all of this data, did his iPhone App programming magic and released “Lafayette Historical Walking Tour”, available for free in the Apple App store on iPad, iPhone, and iTouch.
The App presents the user with a map showing historically significant locations in downtown Lafayette. The user can put the App into “auto” mode and as he approaches an historical site, the audio tour will automatically begin, triggered by GPS location. Old and new photos are overlaid with the ability to slide back and forth between them to gain an understanding of how the site has changed over the years.
Mary McCosker is excited about the App and has already introduced it to all third grade teachers in the Lafayette School District who have previewed their docent led field trip by utilizing Marc’s App on their school iPads. It is Marc’s hope to get the word out so that all citizens of Lafayette can learn about the history of our town. But just maybe others, farther afield, will get to know us as well… some of the first downloads of the App were from China and Poland!
We are also including Marc’s QR code to easily access the App.
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