Key points:

• Virtual field trips can help engage students in critical STEM education
• 8 virtual field trips for STEM education
• How to elevate climate literacy for future scientists
• For more news on virtual field trips, visit eSN’s Digital Learning page

Climate change is an increasingly important subject in school curriculums. Today’s students will almost certainly inherit a climate-affected world and will need to understand the mechanisms of global warming if they are to grow into climate-conscious, civic-minded members of society.

However, many students are dissuaded from pursuing environmental science due to mundane textbooks and complex diagrams. This is a serious issue, as students will need an in-depth understanding of greenhouse gases and ecological damage in the future.

Educators can engage students and build excitement around environmental science using the latest virtual reality (VR) technology. This tech can even take students on virtual field trips, meaning they can virtually visit climate-affected areas from the safety and comfort of the classroom.

Building empathy

Educators can build interest in combating climate change and help kids understand the stakes by utilizing virtual reality headsets. These headsets can take them to climate-affected regions and bring them face-to-face with the Earth’s most fragile ecosystems. This can be a transformative experience that builds empathy with folks who live overseas and in areas most likely to be affected by climate change.

VR headsets can help students understand the stakes for other animals, too. Laura McGinty, a high school biology teacher in Seattle, learned this firsthand when she incorporated VR tech in her classroom. She found that students were moved by the “rich, real experience” that VR provides and finally understood that climate change was decimating penguin colonies and destroying ecosystems around the globe.

This sentiment is echoed by Mitchell Tartt, who heads the Conservation Science Division at the National Marine Sanctuaries. Tartt explains that few students will ever get the chance to scuba dive and see the devastation that climate change causes to coastlines and coral reefs. However, VR acts as a “phenomenally effective learning tool” that helps students connect with issues and ecosystems that they do not have a chance to encounter first-hand.

Climate change in the classroom

Climate change represents a meaningful threat to ecosystems around the world. However, any teacher who has addressed the issue in class knows that it can be a little dry. This is a real problem, as students need to be engaged in their learning if they are to understand the mechanism of climate change.

Virtual reality can spark interest in climate change and unleash the creativity of students by giving kids access to information in innovative ways. For example, educators who want to help students understand solutions to climate change can take their classroom on a virtual field trip to Boeing’s base in Seattle via the ecoAction Virtual Field Trip.

The ecoAction Virtual Field Trip gives students an opportunity to learn more about water use, resource preservation, and waste management without leaving the classroom. The ecoAction shows students possible career pathways in STEM, too, which may help traditionally underrepresented students imagine themselves in roles related to climate science.

When leveraged correctly, VR-driven climate field trips can help students understand how climate change will affect their day-to-day lives in the future, too. For example, teachers can use VR to simulate extreme weather conditions that affect drivers like snow, heatwaves, and flooding. This can give students practical experience with dangerous driving conditions such as lack of visibility from a blizzard whiteout scenario and may even save a life during a storm or heatwave.

Increasing STEM engagement

Virtual reality experiences can help kids become climate conscious and understand the mechanics behind global warming. This can meaningfully improve STEM engagement, as students who connect with STEM via VR and climate change are more likely to understand why the field is so important.

Virtual field trips can also increase inclusion and boost diversity in STEM. Virtual field trips that support the climate curriculum can help traditionally underserved students overcome common barriers to engagement like poor funding and inequity of opportunity. Teachers who bring VR into the classroom ensure that students are still able to learn from hands-on experiences without having to pay expensive travel fees.

Boosting diversity in STEM can minimize the risk of bias in coding algorithms, too. This is crucial, as many of tomorrow’s problems will be solved with a combination of human ingenuity and artificial intelligence. As such, minimizing the risk of bias should be a priority for STEM leaders who want to combat climate change with high-tech solutions.

Increasing diversity and boosting participation in STEM is particularly important today, as climate-literate communities will likely be more resilient than climate-illiterate areas. Communities that are climate-literate can prepare for the future by making collective efforts to minimize the impact of global warming. Teachers can easily boost climate literacy by using VR to:

• Represent data in unique ways that help visual learners better understand the issue
• Provide real-time updates to the class as the semester progresses
• Bring the sights and sounds of climate-affected animals into the classroom using apps like iNaturalist

These VR-integrated pedagogical techniques give students hands-on experience with climate science and make lessons feel real. This can be particularly beneficial for students who struggle to engage with traditional STEM lessons. Real-time eco-system updates and visual experiences can help students connect with the lesson plan and will build excitement around the field of environmental science.

Looking ahead

Virtual field trips can help students become climate literate and improve engagement in STEM classrooms. This is critical today, as many of the challenges we face require an empathetic, informed approach to critical thinking and climate advocacy. VR experiences can improve inclusion and boost diversity in STEM, too, by ensuring that all students have the opportunity to see climate science in action.

Each year, we share our 10 most-read stories. Not surprisingly, many of this year’s Top 10 focused on student engagement and online or hybrid learning strategies related to pandemic teaching. This year’s 6th most-read story focuses on how virtual field trips can engage even the most reluctant STEM learners.

It’s January. Winter break is over, and the rest of the school year–whether in person, hybrid, or virtual–seems never-ending. And while traditional field trips are on pause while COVID still spreads, virtual field trips are still very much possible.

Hands-on STEM subjects are challenging to teach when students aren’t in the classroom all the time, and student engagement is also a challenge during COVID. Virtual field trips address both of these persistent roadblocks.

Virtual field trips can help students get a front-row look at STEM outside of the classroom. Where can those engineering concepts you learn during school take you in adulthood? Is it possible to be creative in a STEM career?

Here are some virtual field trips highlighting STEM careers and experiences:

1. Slime in Space: What happens when you send Nickelodeon slime to the International Space Station? That’s exactly what a group of NASA astronauts set out to answer, and we want you and your kids to come along for the ride! This free 15-minute virtual field trip will take kids 250 miles above earth to see how slime, and water, react in a microgravity environment. It’s truly out of this world!

2. Innovation Generation: Transport students beyond the walls of the classroom and into a Stanley Black & Decker Makerspace where making and doing is a way of life! Inspire your students to be agents of innovation. Working alongside the experts of the Stanley Black & Decker Makerspace, students will see and experience first-hand how math, science, technology, creativity and teamwork can lead to technological advancements in our everyday lives.

3. Internet of Things: Infinite Possibilities Virtual Field Trip: The Internet of Things refers to a collection of computing devices – such as smart speakers, thermostats and sensors –which are connected to a network to allow for an improved real-time data to better manage two of the most critical resources to humanity: energy and water. Students will get an exciting look at how the internet they use in their everyday lives can be used to conserve natural resources, protect ecosystems, and create safer, more sustainable communities.

4. ecoAction Virtual Field Trip: We’re traveling to Seattle to see how Boeing is incorporating sustainable practices and innovations as they pertain to sustainable air travel, natural resource preservation, water quality control, and waste management. Follow along to learn some easy ways you and your community can be sustainable, too!

5. Girls Get Stem – Unleash Your Inner Scientist: Have your classroom join us as we experience a brand-new kind of camp – it’s not just swimming, sun, and s’mores – but STEM! Tune in to transport students to the STEM Center of Excellence where STEM will come to life in new and unexpected ways.

6. Gray, Green, Blue: Water Security and YOU!: People, businesses and industries, recreation, waste removal, transport, nature, and even lawn care all require water. Making sure there’s enough reliable, clean water for the health and livelihoods of people and natural environments is what we mean by water security, and it is one of the biggest challenges we face. Learn how nature can play a role in ensuring water security and what YOU can do to help!

7. The National Museum of Computing: The museum has virtually opened its doors for anyone to visit and take a tour of the world’s largest collection of working historic computers. Wherever you live, you can now journey through the history of modern computing from its very beginnings to the present day–from the comfort of a PC or device. You can stroll through our new, virtual experience–unguided or with one of the museum’s experts for a live, virtual tour where you will gain first-hand insight and knowledge about the 50,000 artifacts in the museum’s unique collection.

8. Museum of Science Virtual Field Trips: Students can talk with experts, observe leafcutter ants in action, discover the science behind Pixar Animation Studios, explore and identify animal skills, and more.

The days of projectors only being used in classrooms to show movies or what is on the teacher’s computer screen are long gone.  With the advent of interactive projectors, improved light source and connectivity options, and software tools that take projection to new heights, it is an exciting time to be a teacher and a student.

Modern Projectors and their Technology

First, let’s cover the advances in the technology.  There is an incredible amount of power and features packed into these fairly small boxes. Projection display technology includes several components that can be categorized into three benefits:

• Image Quality – There are several things that make up image quality: the resolution, the lumens (or brightness measurement), and the contrast ratio. Projection displays are now offering full HD resolution and high lumen projectors, from 3,000 – 4,000 lumens, are becoming affordable for the classroom. When considering brightness, it’s important to choose a projector technology that has equal color and white lumens such as 3LCD to ensure the best image quality with bright vibrant colors. In addition, contrast ratio is changing rapidly, especially with the advent of new laser projectors.  Laser projection displays offer incredibly bright images, with up to 20,000 hours of virtually maintenance-free operation and a dynamic contrast ratio of up to 2,500,000:1. And laser technology means projection displays can offer high lumens with little energy use for large venues such as gymnasiums and theatres.  Collectively this results in images that are incredibly crisp and accessible even in a well-lit classroom.

• Image Size – When it comes to classroom projection, size really does matter. Students need to be able to see the content being presented no matter where they are sitting in the classroom. Ultra short-throw projection displays provide an image of 100 inches with virtually no shadow interference. This makes them a great solution for making a wall interactive when the projection display is on. Some projection displays also now offer split screen functionality which allows the teacher to project two images from different sources side-by-side. And, for schools looking to make an entire wall interactive, there are options like DuoLink which allows for the placement of two projectors side-by-side to create one massive seamless surface up to 280 inches (diagonal).

• Connectivity – Projector connection options are really advancing. Most displays offer multiple HDMI ports to support multiple high-definition A/V devices. Also, there are now MHL ports being offered to enable educators to connect an MHL-enabled device such as smartphones and tablets to the projection display.

Projection Displays Can Change the Way Students Learn

Now comes the fun part – there are so many cool things being done with projection displays and, as laser displays become more available, this is sure to explode. Projection displays incorporate tools that help students and teachers interact with each other and with the content being displayed.

New software tools allow teachers to manage student devices for two-way content sharing – both pulling student screens to the display and pushing content to each student device.  This is great when educators are teaching a math lesson, for example. The teacher can teach the lesson to the whole class and then push a math problem to each device. When students complete the math problem, teachers can show multiple students’ work on the large display.

This is extremely important in today’s Common Core era where educators help students learn from both correct and incorrect answers. This also provides great discussion opportunities for students to delve deeper into the problem being solved.

(Next page: Projectors for tech beginners; projection for virtual trips and AR)

For Those New to Projectors’ Potential

For educators new to projection technology, there are simple ways to interact with content being projected. Students can connect in real time with experts and other classrooms around the world via tools like Skype. This has amazing power to bring knowledge and other perspectives from around the world into the classroom.  In addition, virtual field trips can take students to far-away places for studying history and culture.

There are lots of Open Source Resources (OSR) on the market today to take advantage of projection displays. If your students want to make a presentation light up, there is free OSR software called MusicBeam that allows them to replicate an eye-catching laser light show using a projection display. In addition to putting some wow into a presentation, it can turn a high school band concert into a rocking good time. It can provide students who might not otherwise have the ability to participate in extracurricular activities, such as band, with a way to contribute by working with the software to create the light show.

And for rainy day indoor recesses, there is the ability to create an indoor planetarium with a free software program called Celestia. This is a free space simulation that lets users explore the universe in three dimensions.

Also, Stellarium is free open source planetarium software that shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what a student sees with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. By using one of these software programs and pointing a projector to the ceiling, teachers can turn any classroom into a planetarium on the fly.

Adding Interactivity

Interactivity in projection displays allows teachers and students to create presentations that let the audience participate and contribute to the finished project.  Here is a video of a creative teacher doing a Harold and the Purple Crayon lesson with preschoolers.  The video is a testament to just how exciting it is for even young students to be a part of the creation process. With the addition of touch interactivity, it makes it even easier to incorporate a technology-driven lesson into the preschool curriculum and provide students with a hands-on learning experience.

Also, schools are taking interactive projection displays that offer PC-free annotation and putting them in informal learning spaces where groups of students can collaborate and annotate without the need of a computer. These are great for small group brainstorming sessions and for working through ideas in places like makerspaces.

Students Becoming Professionals

When projectors are merged together to make large scale images, the variety of things students can do with them is only stopped by their imagination.  When schools create a large interactive wall they can turn it into an end-of-year message board or collage where students can leave notes or post pictures of themselves from their years at the school.  The image can then be saved and sent out to families as a keepsake.

To build school spirit at the beginning of the school year, the school can project a large image of the school mascot on the wall and then have students trace it.  Then students can paint the image and create a mural around the mascot’s activities for the year.

Students can also work with the A/V departments at their schools to create visual displays for sporting events or virtual sets for play productions.  Each year, Pensacola Christian College’s staff and students work together to create what they call Eagle Mania.  This presentation, created with multiple projection displays, is on par—if not better than—anything you see at NBA games.

All of the skills students are learning when designing these productions are ones that will benefit them in the workforce.

Augmented Reality for the Classroom – the Next Step in Teaching and Learning

Projected augmented reality, also known as projection mapping, is a really exciting proposition for schools.  Unlike virtual reality, which is often a very singular experience, augmented reality allows many to experience the same augmented reality.  This technology is in its infancy, but over time it has the power to merge the virtual and real world to bring images to life.

Researchers, universities and companies are busy at work finding ways to bring augmented reality into the classroom.  For instance, to help students understand topography, researchers at UC Davis created the Augmented Reality Sandbox. It uses a standard short-throw projector, a 3D camera and a PC with OSR software to allow students to change the landscape to see what transpires. If you don’t have the resources to build your own, there is a map on their site that shows where Augmented Reality Sandboxes already exist.

Watch for news from a company called Lightform. They are hoping to bring projection mapping to the masses with an affordable computer that includes a processor and a high-res camera. This allows the projector to map onto any surface.

Finally, laser technology opens up entire new dimensions of projection display placement flexibility, form factor, image size and image quality.  As an industry, we have just started scratching the surface of what is possible. With projection display’s compact size and extremely large images, the future of student learning looks incredibly bright.

To help educators save time, we’ve put together a quick recap on how to prepare for your next virtual field trip (VFT) and five of the best VFT’s based on their relevancy, quality of resources, and potential for student excitement. Student engagement starts with excitement, so get planning!

Prepare: Like any lesson plan, consider how you can prepare your students. First, don’t forget the standards, curriculum, and content you are helping your students uncover. By connecting these virtual field trip experiences to content that you want students to learn, you can ensure students come to the event ready to participate. Also look for pre-event activities your students can participate in. Not only do these activities promote student thinking about what might happen during the virtual field trip, they also allow you to create connections to the specific content you wish to cover.

Engage and connect: During the event, make sure that you take advantage of any virtual connections that are possible, such as submitting questions for panelists before or during the event, or participating in Twitter backchannel conversations as the VFT unfolds. Your participation helps guide live panelists and provides your students the opportunity to be recognized. There’s not too much more exciting then hearing your class’s name and question read aloud during a live virtual field trip.

Model: Don’t forget to model your learning for your students. Take pictures of what is happening in the classroom and document everything going on. In order to maximize virtual field trips, integrate teaching strategies with the content that is shared. You might consider the A-E-I-O-U strategy during the event; showing students how to capture what they learned. (A- an adjective or two that describes what they learned, E – emotion describing how it made them feel, I – something they found interesting, O – something that made them say “Oh!”, U – write a question that you want to learn more about). For more examples of free strategies to use with digital media, take a look here.

Reflect: During the event, identify the talking points and imagery that provides the most direct launching point into your curriculum. Plan to revisit these segments in the future. Consider what resonated with your students. How can you make this more than an isolated lesson? Often, these events pique students’ interest and spark many questions. Use this opportunity to have students record their thinking. Don’t expect to provide answers. Rather, put the learning opportunity back on your students to discover their answers as you work together towards mastering your unit of instruction.

Next page: 5 of the best trips to consider

Share: The most important step is sharing what you’ve learned! Teachers that use virtual field trips regularly ask students to create artifacts that represent their learning. In addition to a written reflection, consider visual projects like photo journals, digital stories, and blog posts. As you bring more virtual field trips into your classroom, students can compare them and identify which they like the best. Parents, administrators and your community will love seeing the places you’ve visited and will begin to follow along on your journey. Consider sharing your participation via your classroom newsletter or website, and also let the organization conducting the VFT know how you participated. They will appreciate the feedback, and may offer additional opportunities to recognize your classroom.

If the idea of participating in VFTs is new to you, don’t be overwhelmed. Take small steps such as watching one of these events on your own. Some teachers use virtual field trips as an activator into a unit. They don’t replace the need-to-see content, but rather provide a foundational experience to ask questions and prepare for the unit of study.

Here are five of the best trips to consider:

1. White House it’s an election year!
   “Inside the White House” is a good idea for older elementary and middle school students learning about government, as well as any civics or American history class. Students can watch videos or take an interactive tour through the West Wing, the South Lawn, the East Wing, and the Residence. There is also a slide show of the presidents and other historical information.
2. Mt. Everest and no one will need oxygen!
   From recent panoramas and photo galleries, to travel logs and fun facts, students can make their very own virtual climb of Mt. Everest.
3. Hershey’s Factory who doesn’t like chocolate!
   Sometimes students just want to explore something cool, like chocolate. Thanks to step-by-step videos on its chocolate-making process, Hershey’s gives students a fun virtual field trip … even if it’s minus the smell and taste of chocolate!
4. Panoramas of the world and no freaking security lines!
   View high-definition panoramas from anywhere in the world, including snowy mountain tops and deep sea coral reefs, at 360 Cities, which contains one of the internet’s largest collection of uploaded panoramic images. Students can access to navigable views of cities, natural landscapes and much more. The site also offers tools for people to create their own panoramas. For more specific panoramas, check out the Seven Wonders of the World. This website has panoramic views of all Seven Wonders of the World, which include the Colosseum in Rome, The Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, The Taj Mahal in India, Machu Picchu in Peru Christ Redeemer in Rio, and Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

Check out these related articles:

Ten of the best virtual field trips

How Google’s virtual field trips really look inside the classroom