Thank you for visiting our page! This exploratory project supports the professional growth and development of current middle and high school STEM teachers by providing multiyear summer training and school year support around three specific areas: (1) environmental sciences - wetlands conservation and management content; (2) using and creating virtual field trips; and (3) supporting VR implementation through classroom-based action research. This project will bring locally relevant VR experiences to teachers and students who are underrepresented in STEM. We are still near the beginning stages of our project which is why our video focuses on components of our project rather than project outcomes. We are especially interested in discussions regarding building and assessing teacher collaborative communities and connecting with others who are using virtual reality in STEM teaching and learning. However, we are excited about engaging with everyone and we welcome all comments and feedback.

If you're a secondary STEM teacher in East Baton Rouge or surrounding parishes, we are currently recruiting cohort 2 teachers.  You can find the application here: https://tinyurl.com/BEETech2022

This is awesome, and long overdue. Virtual reality will be the future

Great job!!! Keep inspiring the people.

Thanks for sharing your work! I wonder if you can tell us a bit more about what these VR experiences are like. Are they mostly 360 videos of the locations? Are they interactive or game like? And I know you're in the early stages of the project, but have you had a chance to begin observing how teachers are integrating these experiences in their classrooms and curricula?

Great ideas.

I would love to know more about what you are doing with VR and virtual field trip.

This is an awesome topic for VR experiences. I would like to know what applications or tools you are using for the VR experiences. What are you planning to assess with teacher collaborations?

This is a really great idea. Virtual reality to help experience ecosystems in trouble.

A few of you have asked about the solution being used in the video above. The students are all shown using the ClassVR Virtual and Augmented Reality headset that the teachers are managing via their web browser. For more information on ClassVR, please visit our website HERE

Thank you for sharing - this is wonderful! I had two questions: 1) Have you talked to any of the teachers about following up their VR experience with a real-world experience either to similar or different spaces?  Also, 2) have you any sense how the teachers might want to combine this experience with other activities or assignments where they share their impressions from what they saw?  Keep up the good work! 

Thank you for sharing this video!  I would like to know if you and your team have thought about ways the students and teachers can get involved in creating some of these virtual field trips themselves, allowing for the students to learn something they learned in real life with future students having a similar experience?

Such a great video and exciting learning experience for teachers and students! I deeply appreciate the content being focused on local/regional phenomena like the changing our Louisiana wetlands and its impacts. EBR is super lucky. (from Shreveport)

Excellent! Thanks for sharing this.

First, on the execution of the video, I really liked the bits where you had teachers talking in a small frame in front of classroom video. That was really compelling.

Following up on the above discussion of game-like experiences, I do wonder if there might be utility in some small pieces from "games" to enhance the experience of "being there"? For example, I've been to a number of science centers, natural areas, etc. that use a scavenger hunt mechanic, in which visitors are asked to locate examples of different elements of the locale on their visit. Might this (or other pieces like it) be something to consider including?

Perhaps even better, would there be any way to ask students to design mini-experiments that could be conducted in the VR experience?

I feel your pain re: Google cancelling projects with little-to-no warning. Such a challenge. I'm glad the virtual field trip made its way to you, and wish you luck getting an alternate platform up and running. Is the choice of authoring platform dependent on hardware? In other words, have you already committed to a specific hardware for the schools you'll work with, or can you be dynamic in that regard?

Finally, what have you been surprised by so far in working with the teachers and in seeing them work with students? And how have teachers informed the design of your work to date?

I really appreciate your work - the wetlands of LA are such a natural treasure, and I'm glad you're working to build appreciation for them.

I love these comments and questions Josh!

In terms of gaming, there could be a game like aspect to the virtual field trips via the points of interest embedded within the environments. I can totally see that scavenger hunt idea coming to life.

I’ll have to think on that idea of mini experiments within the VR because I haven’t thought about that before. I only thought about that for Biology/chemistry/physics lab, but not for the work we are doing. Thanks for planting that seed.

For hardware, we are using what is essentially a plastic version of Google cardboard similar to the ones in the video. We picked the robot labs platform because it has a set of experiences built already so it is a low hanging fruit type of way to first get teachers and students engaged. Once their minds are open to what is possible, then we want to move towards creating local experiences. We have a bit more flexibility in software to use for creation, as long as the final product can be converted to something that would work with the devices. We also are looking into Lenovo headsets and their Veative program.

Thanks for sharing your project and for your work with teachers and students!  I live in Baton Rouge, so I was pleased to see a "local" project.  The students' reactions to the VR simulations were priceless!  You mentioned that you are interested in connecting with others who are using VR for teaching and learning.  The Instructional Technology team in my school district (East Baton Rouge Parish) does a great job with providing professional development for our teachers on the use of VR for virtual field trips and other educational experiences.  Many of our teachers are doing an excellent job with providing students with VR experiences. You may want to reach out to them - I'm sure they would welcome the opportunity to collaborate.

Awesome concept and creative form of teaching.

This is awesome. I love how the students can be more engaged in their lessons.

Dr. Jones and team, what an outstanding project to leverage technology to enhance learning in such an immersive, interactive way! Kudos to you on your vision for empower teachers and students to bring their lessons to life in the classroom, without having to worry about technology resource limitations.  Thank you for creating access in a way that can inspire other learning environments to do the same.  I'm excited to see how this empowering work continues!  (btw, any places I can find publications/papers on this work?)

Love it! It was great to see the smiling faces and the excitement as the students were watching. Thanks for sharing.