Using Virtual Reality in the Classroom

The future is bright and experiential for students today. Never before has learning been more engaging, empowering and exploratory for students. With Virtual Reality we can extend students learning to experience and empathize with places, people, and nature first-hand and up close. Helen Kardiasmenos, NSW CSER Project Officer, explores some of the VR options available that you may find suitable for your classroom.

Students can deep dive in the ocean or soar atop of rainforests. With Virtual Reality, students can travel to deep space and explore the Solar System, or travel to the past and explore long lost civilisations. This post explores different ways you can use Virtual Reality Headsets in the classroom to extend students learning and expand on curriculum linked digital technologies and other key learning area activities.

There are a plethora of great VR experiences that link to curriculum learning including:

Space -  The Final Frontier:

Visit outer space, travel through the Solar System, fly in a rocket and visit Mars with these VR experiences.

• http://eyedentity360.com/en/
• Journey to the Edge of Space 360VR
• Google expeditions - search for Space Science and Mars expeditions

Environments

Plants, Rainforests, Underwater explore the natural world with these VR experiences:

• Sea World 2 VR Cardboard
• Under the Canopy Amazon 360
• Rainforest 360
• Google Expeditions - search for Plant Structures and Plant Adaptations

Animals & Insects

Empathize with Animals and Insects in these VR experiences:

• In the eyes of the Animal
• Google Expeditions - search for Dinosaurs, Insect Adaptations and Fish

Natural Disasters

Explore Natural Disasters with these VR experiences:

• VRFlood a 360 VR experience (may be scary for younger students)
• Google Expeditions - search for A Look at Volcanoes, Forces of Nature AR

Biology & Chemistry

What does it look like inside a cell? What do chemical chemicals and molecules look like? Explore the immune system. Here are some good VR experiences for Biology and Chemistry.

• http://educhem-vr.com/
• https://www.tdwscience.com/cellscape-360o-vr
• https://www.labster.com/vr/
• Google Expeditions - search for Immune System

Historical Places

Explore Ancient Places and civilisations with these VR experiences:

• Ancient Journeys VR
• Rome VR
• Google Expeditions - search for Ancient Wonders, Pompeii

The list above are suggestions, but a search through the Google Play Store or the Apple App store will also reveal hundreds of experiences that may suit the content and learning intentions of your school.