One day soon, your Greenwood students will come home and tell you that their class went on a field trip to Mount Rushmore or the Great Pyramids of Egypt...or joined a submarine crew to explore underwater...or took a tour of the International Space Station.
Thanks to a generous grant of $2,500 from the Wakefield Education Foundation (WEF) and matching funds from the Greenwood School PTO, students and teachers now have access to hundreds of virtual educational experiences through the innovative Google Expeditions virtual reality kit.
The Google Expeditions virtual reality kit brings lessons to life with field trips to almost everywhere. Google Expeditions immerses students in experiences that bring abstract concepts to life and give them a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom. Teachers choose an Expedition and lead a group of students through a virtual field trip, selecting the content they’re viewing and pointing out specific points of interest along the way. The teacher is the Expedition “guide” and leads students via a tablet with the Google Expeditions app. Students use devices paired with View-Master virtual reality viewers to connect to the teacher’s network and join the Expedition as “explorers.”
Expeditions are collections of virtual reality panoramas — 360° panoramas and 3D images — annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that make them easy to integrate into lessons. The list of available Expeditions is constantly expanding, and with over 600 Expeditions currently available, there is something for everyone--every grade level, every content area. Teachers can find an Expedition to bring their lessons to life for students, while enhancing the curriculum.
Learn more about Google Expeditions.
Greenwood PTO Board Members Jennifer Moon and Laura Hubert presented the Google Expeditions program to Greenwood faculty on May 16. With the support of media specialist Julia Sparano, teachers and students have begun exploring the world beyond the classroom to the rain forest, the deep sea, and historical sites, as well as up-close investigations of insects and other creatures. Stay tuned for updates about this brand-new technology and its impact on our students’ learning!