CHILDREN explored the solar system, the human body and even a museum in Australia without leaving the classroom thanks to a virtual reality experience from Google Expeditions.
Balsall Common Primary School pupils used cardboard viewers with a smartphone inside and were then led on an expedition into fascinating places by their teacher who had control via a tablet.
The teachers were able to guide the children, asking them questions and giving them interesting facts along the way.
They were then able to see the 360-degree life-like images.
The Mayor of Solihull, Mike Robinson, joined them on their adventures and was very impressed with how inspired the children were.
He said: “The great thing about new technology and education is get them to work together and they inevitably work brilliantly.
“Google has the expertise to make that a reality and certainly does so with its Google Expeditions package.
“At Balsall Common Primary I had the privilege of experiencing that technology and to witness the children’s reaction first hand.
“Each of the lessons that I sat in on there was not one child that wasn’t fully engaged with what they were seeing and what they were doing.
“You couldn’t help but notice how each of the children had their eyes firmly glued to their own individual 3D viewer; lost in a world uniquely theirs and yet fully controlled by their teacher.
“This is education at its best captivating and holding students attention whilst stimulating their imagination, encouraging curiosity and best of all giving them an appetite for future learning.”
During the day they visited museums in Melbourne, Berlin and Chicago, went into space to explore the solar system and were even able to explore the inside of a human body.
Cathy Edwards, who organised the visit, said: “The children really enjoyed their experience and we hope to be able to offer this again in the future in an effort to continue to inspire our children’s learning.
“If we could get 30 old smart phones we would be able to run our own sessions on a regular basis and ask that, if anyone has such a phone that they no longer need, to donate it to the school as it really will make such a difference.”
