Google was in town this week to give students a sneak peak of its new virtual reality platform, and kids in the Deer Valley Unified School District were treated to unannounced field trips.
Cyndy Faucher’s second grade class cooed with delight when they first saw the Grand Canyon from inside the library at Legend Springs Elementary School.
Google’s Expeditions Pioneer Program lets teachers like Faucher use an application to give virtual tours of places kids might otherwise not be able to go. With a mobile device slipped inside goggles made of cardboard or plastic, students can visit places like Machu Picchu, Egypt or the bottom of the ocean.
“One of the things that we can do to engage students is use technology,” said Jennifer Minor, principal of Legend Springs Elementary.
Minor wants to make this new tool available to approximately 500 second through sixth graders. The cardboard goggles are inexpensive, but PTA president Rose Akre said the school will probably have to also raise money to buy the mobile devices.
“We have raised a lot of money in the past for different technology here at school,” Akre said. “I think we’ll be able to do it whatever that cost may be.”
The Expeditions program officially launches in June, Minor said. She hopes to have it in classrooms by the start of the next school year.
