Visual arts class is not an area of strength for me, so I look for activities that play to my strengths and that are different from what my grade 8 students have done for the past 8+ years of elementary school art class. To that end, I introduced them to SketchUp for Schools which runs on their Chromebooks. It's a 3-D CAD program that is very easy to use but still incredibly powerful. To help them learn the fundamental skills necessary to use the software, I created a series of video lessons which instruct them on how to use the most common tools. If you've never use CAD before, this series of videos should get your running on SketchUp. The first introduction lesson is 13 minutes but the remaining videos are just 1 to 3 minutes.
Note: Sketchup is best used with a mouse but can be done with a track pad.
As one option for their final assignment, students are making the plans for a tiny home which was part of one of their geography lessons.