“It’s making learning real.” This is how science teacher Wendy Martin describes AHS’s new STEM BEST partnership with VictoryVR, a Quad-City tech company. From a phlebotomist to a veterinarian and an industrial engineer to a science teacher, Virtual Reality (or VR) is changing the way students learn about STEM careers.
The program, “VR STEM Career Exploration,” uses phone-based virtual reality software to bring STEM careers from throughout the U.S. directly to students, giving them the opportunity to virtually “step into” the worlds of 20 different STEM careers (and growing). Each vignette physically places students in laboratories, green houses, observatories and more as these STEM employees explain the day-to-day duties of their job, their educational pathways and their passion for what they do.
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The Iowa STEM Council provided a STEM BEST cost-matched award of $25,000 to Assumption last October based on its proposal to collaborate with a local business and develop a tool that would benefit students not only in Iowa but also across the nation. Come fall, Assumption will begin using the tool in all of its classrooms as well as for career guidance conversations between students and counselors.
The program is available to anyone, anywhere, with a smartphone and access to Google Cardboard or other affordable, VR headset gear. The free app is available now in the Google Play Store and a version for the iPhone will be available in the Apple Store soon.