These eighth graders use virtual reality to learn science. Teacher says it's improving attendance

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders at Phoenix's Villa de Paz Elementary School are learning part time in a mobile virtual reality classroom. One teacher says it's led to higher attendance rates, more completed assignments and better engagement.

MacKenzie Skarlupka's eighth graders have been using a VR program to explore an alien zoo.

“Where they have to figure out why a specific alien has cancer," Skarlupka said.

Then they take off their headsets and analyze data to help them make scientific decisions.

“They actually looked at the carcinogen levels for different toxins and they had to figure out whether that toxin actually was impacting the environment in which the spotted glider was living in, the alien that they're working with," Skarlupka said.

The program has made her students more invested in learning and led to more of them showing up to class.

“I’ve definitely seen my kids actually become a little bit more connected to the content and the standards that they're learning about versus if they were just to do, like, a regular lab or even just a regular assignment," Skarlupka said.

She said it's even expanded their vocabulary, something they used to be uninterested in.

"The vocabulary that's in the VR is definitely at a higher level than middle school. So they're now understanding stuff that's even, like, above what they would usually see at their grade level," Skarlupka said. "So when a kid asks me, 'Well, what's a carcinogen?' They actually want to know what it means and what does it have to do with the VR."

The mobile classroom came out of a partnership between entertainment company Dreamscape Learn and Arizona State University. ASU Associate Dean for Learning Innovation Mike Angilletta said President Michael Crow saw what Dreamscape was doing and thought it could be used for immersive learning.

“Then we built a whole series of courses," Angilletta said. "And what we do in these courses, instead of like tell you about biology, we make you a biologist the very first day.”

Now, ASU is bringing the same technology to the Pendergast Elementary School District. Both parties hope the positive results will catch on and the technology will reach more schools.

"What that means is making the student the center of their educational journey," Angilletta said. "So giving them the intrinsic motivation to learn because they're explorers trying to solve a problem or just discover something."