Description
Our after school programs engage students with an ever-growing library of lessons that highlight Virtual Reality. Open to all experience levels, and grades, we facilitate the usage of Virtual Reality while teaching about STEM topics.
A primary objective is to bring VR learning opportunities directly to students, who might otherwise lack access, and highlight key features designed to build foundational knowledge about VR. LearnVR is a subject-matter expert that partners with schools, teachers, and students to provide comprehensive lessons around VR. We’ve designed our own course, “Intro to Virtual Reality & Spatial Computing”, which provides a broad overview of the VR landscape and incorporates a classroom-wide demonstration for each student to experience VR technology first hand. An additional library of courses, like “Scale, Perspective, Perception in VR”, “The Universe”, “Reading with Dinosaurs”, “3D Design, Art, Storytelling”, “Robotics & Engineering” and more are in development to supplement a wide variety of STEM subjects. Program activities consist of interactive discussions and hands-on portions where students break into small groups, for a 3:1 student to VR headset ratio, ensuring that each student has exposure and experience learning within VR. Our project-based curriculum is designed to augment existing classroom STEM lessons in a novel and memorable way, introducing students to new technological possibilities in VR while also paralleling state standards, instilling confidence in educators mandated to follow specific guidelines.
Each After-School program last 2 hours – customizable for grades 3 and above, actively engaging students of all ability levels. LearnVR is set to launch at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Because our programs are turnkey, requiring no initial investment in hardware, technology, or staff, schools are eager to work with us as the subject-matter experts in VR curriculum implementation.
First hand experiences in VR are the only way to effectively demonstrate what the technology enables, namely a new understanding of virtual space including the ability to navigate virtual environments, learn from a new perspective, manipulate scale, change perceptions, conceptualize what spatial computing means, and feel virtual embodiment – VR has even been called “an empathy machine” because of its ability to effectively put users in other people’s shoes. Classrooms interested in weekly or monthly visits learn about more advanced topics, beyond the Intro Course, such as: 3D design, art, virtual field trips, socialization in VR, scientific principles, space travel, biology (micro & macro), engineering, game design, architecture, music, phys ed and other related STEM subjects. Intended outcomes are for students to gain exposure to VR, knowledgeably define key terms, learn about VR history, navigate 3D digital space, identify future opportunities in VR, showcase real-world industry usages, think about privacy concerns, understand the underlying technology that makes VR possible, and ultimately further their drive to continue learning about VR and Spatial Computing.
