Some of our grade 7 students recently had the opportunity to experience VR in their studies. These students were inquiring into world biomes from a biological and geographical perspective. While it’s easy to observe the tropical rainforest biome firsthand in Singapore, immersing ourselves in other biomes such as deserts, tundras and grasslands is definitely a challenge. Until recently, we have been limited to pictures and videos of the other major biomes for units like this. VR and AR are indeed game changers. Students in 7-1 recently took a virtual reality field trip to explore other world biomes. All we needed was our smartphones, some cardboard VR viewers and Google’s Expeditions app.

For this activity, teachers can either guide the tour through their own device or students can explore the specific expedition freely, pressing down on a button at the top of the viewer to move through the prompts. Our experience was teacher-guided so that we could draw students’ attention to a variety of built-in highlights of biome features and the adaptations of its flora and fauna (eg cones and needles of coniferous trees in the taiga). Each “expedition” came with a general description of the biomes and leveled questions for teachers to ask students.

While grade 7 student’s VR experience was definitely fun and interactive, most importantly, this VR experience truly allowed the students’ learning to come to life and helped them better understand the biogeography of six world biomes (tundra, taiga, temperate forest, tropical rainforest, savanna and desert).

When asked about their VR lesson, students said:

“The experience was very new as I had not done this before and seeing the textures and shapes of a different place took me away. We saw numerous species of plants, animals and different rocks. Seeing is believing, and seeing the biome allowed thoughts to fire and branch out. This concept could be applied to history too. Maybe being at Martin Luther King's scene of death would be better than looking at blurry photos [referring to a source analysis assessment we did in September]. 360° photos were not taken back then, but 100 years from now they can look through VR at a time when cars did not fly and people did not teleport. I would love to use VR again in class.” Gabriel Chia, Grade 7-1 Student.

“When trying on the VR viewers, it felt weird that we were seeing a different biome but were still here in Singapore. It was really realistic especially because of the 360° view. It definitely helped us learn because we got to have a different perspective on the biomes. As well, arrows were pointing to different fauna and flora allowing us to see it in real life. I found when writing my summative assessment, I was able to remember it because it was different and unique compared to all the other photos and videos.” Emma Spahr, Grade 7-1 Student.

Some teachers and parents may be intimidated by VR or think that it’s too expensive or time-consuming. Not so. VR viewers can be made of inexpensive cardboard and VR is a great way for students to occasionally make their units “come to life” at school and at home.

They also provide a fun family opportunity to explore historically, spiritually or culturally significant places or environments together. Cardboard viewers can be purchased online for as little as $5 from https://vr.google.com/cardboard/get-cardboard/ and the Expeditions app is free to download. Use My.CIS to find out what students are learning at school and then search the app for related expeditions. This could be a fun educational way to study when homework is lighter or during school holidays.

VR/AR spotlight

CIS’s Digital Literacy Coach Timothy Studlo recently moderated a roundtable discussion titled “Opening The World To Students Through Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality” at the EduTech Conference Singapore. Over forty educators from all over Asia participated in the productive discussions which included virtual field trips, creation with virtual reality (VR)/ augmented reality (AR), language acquisition through virtual experiences, and how to offer differentiated learning for different types of students.

From these discussions, it is evident that VR/AR is storming into the classrooms as the technology is getting more accessible to educators. Many participants agreed that this technology can offer students first hand experiences they otherwise would never know and learning can be enhanced in various ways through VR/AR experiences. What matters most is to find the right time and place to implement this technology into the curriculum.