My cousin Brandon Grace is the leader of a team of really smart kids at Lubbock's Mackenzie Middle School including Randall Hust and Cassie Scully. They built an augmented reality sandbox. But what does that mean?

It means that they took some current technology and, with guidance and help from seniors Kris Pennington and Christian Arroyo, built this really cool sandbox.

The team used a program developed by a university, but "the students had to build the system, install the OS, configure the program, mount the projector and XBOX Kinect, calibrate it, and do a lot of problem solving."

What they built is more than a sandbox. It's an interactive topographical map. As you move the sand around, the camera and computer pick up the changes in topography and re-calibrate the image moving mountains and streams as if in real life. You can actually see the water going over digital water falls as the valleys are moved around.

Watch these amazing videos and remember: These are our middle school students.

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