Doro Link: Virtual Reality: Realizing the Power of Experience, Excursion and Immersion in the Classroom

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This guide is available as a downloadable PDF.

In 2015, The New York Times pioneered a new form of storytelling: virtual reality journalism. In an introduction to its first V.R. video, “The Displaced,” a documentary about three children who had been forced from their homes by war and persecution, Jake Silverstein, The New York Times Magazine’s editor, wrote:

We decided to launch The Times’s virtual-reality efforts with these portraits because we recognize that this new filmmaking technology enables an uncanny feeling of connection with people whose lives are far from our own. By creating a 360-degree environment that encircles the viewer, virtual reality creates the experience of being present within distant worlds, making it uniquely suited to projects, like this one, that speak to our senses of empathy and community.

Since then, The Times has created a series of 360-degree videos that transport users from their living rooms to far-flung places — from Antarctica to Ethiopia, the depths of the ocean to Pluto, back to the beginning of the universe and through Olympic history.

Five years later, V.R. might not have taken off in the way many hoped it would, but it still has the potential to be a powerful tool for the classroom.

A Guide for Using NYT VR With Students

Getting Started With V.R. in the Classroom

Why Virtual Reality?

Virtual reality is engaging, yes — its novelty can be an excellent hook for learning — but it can also be so much more than that. With The Times’s 360 videos, students are no longer mere spectators, reading about an event or watching it unfold, but participants in it. Virtual reality can create a visceral experience, evoke memories, and foster empathy and emotional connection in a way that is rare in other mediums.

It can also make abstract concepts concrete — taking students inside a giant microscope that smashes together subatomic particles, transporting them to iconic moments in history, or introducing them to people affected by the global refugee crisis.

And V.R. can take students to places they might otherwise never get the chance to go, whether that’s the Mississippi Delta, Antarctica or Pluto.

From a practical standpoint, what’s also useful about NYT VR is that the films are typically no longer than 10 minutes, so they are easy to fit into a normal class period without overwhelming students.

In this guide, we offer you an array of examples to leverage immersive technology in your classroom using New York Times content and give you the tools to create V.R. lessons of your own.

How to Use This Guide

This guide comes in two parts: (1) a framework for teaching with virtual reality and (2) a set of eight lesson plans, each based on an NYT VR video. It’s meant to be flexible based on your curricular goals and the needs of your students. Here are a few suggestions for using it in your classroom.

Teach Our Lesson Plans. We’ve included eight lesson plans suitable for STEM and humanities classes that can be taught in one to two class periods. Each one is based on an NYT VR video, or series of videos, and includes activities for before, during and after the V.R. experience.

Practice Skills. Virtual reality is ripe for practicing a number of academic skills related to STEM and the humanities. You can use the lessons in this guide or the videos on their own to teach students skills like:

Making predictions and observations and drawing conclusions.
Asking media literacy questions.
Having discussions and making claims grounded in text evidence.
Practicing descriptive writing and communicating complex concepts.
Using multiple literacies like reading, viewing and listening.
Building empathy and taking the perspectives of others.

Build Your Own Curriculum. Are you teaching about animal intelligence in biology? Reading a novel about refugees in language arts? Learning about the civil rights movement in social studies? You can use any of the lesson plans in this guide to supplement a unit you’re already teaching. Here are a few ideas:

Use a video as an engaging hook at the beginning of a unit.
Take a “virtual field trip” to build background knowledge on a culture, place, people, historical event or scientific concept you are studying.
Make what you’re learning relevant to the real world by inviting students to connect what they’re studying in class to a VR video.

You can also draw on the themes and learning strategies in this guide to create your own lesson plans or units around an NYT VR film of your choice. Find many more 360 videos to use in your classroom in the 360 Video stream or the New York Times YouTube channel.

Learning Strategies for V.R.

We suggest a few teaching ideas to get the most out of virtual reality with your students.

Roles and Goals. Virtual reality is experiential; it asks viewers not just to watch the film, but also to participate in it. By giving students roles to play (astronauts, anthropologists, museum curators, deep-sea divers) and having focused objectives (collecting data, sharing insights, making recommendations), teachers provide students with a mission to decode their experiences.

Partners. Pairing students creates a community of trust, develops empathy and deepens experience sharing. It’s also useful if you have a limited number of viewing devices. Ensure that each partner has a role in the activity. For example, one student might view the video and share their observations verbally while another student records them.

Exploration and Inquiry. This medium is all about exploration, inquiry and play, so while students will have a learning objective, they should also have plenty of time to follow their curiosities and investigate the new worlds they find themselves in. We suggest students watch the video at least twice: once to explore and again to make specific observations related to their roles and goals.

Journaling. After students view the V.R. video, they should have an opportunity to record their observations, synthesize their ideas and reflect on their overall experience. Each of our lessons includes a journaling opportunity, such as the “If I Were There” and “Notice and Wonder” protocols. Then, students can discuss what they wrote.

Tips for Getting Started With V.R. in the Classroom

From safety precautions to technology requirements, here’s what you’ll need to teach with NYT VR.

A Tool, Not a Curriculum. Virtual reality is not a technology that should replace other teaching resources; instead, it should serve as a complementary tool that can enhance learning across disciplines. As with any new technology being introduced into the classroom, success depends on expectations, an effective strategy and the practical details of how it is being used.

Safety! Safety! Safety! We always recommend sitting when participating in V.R. experiences. Partners create an additional safety measure because the partner who is observing can ensure that his or her partner is safely experiencing the VR content.

Before starting, go over a list of dos and don’ts. Some of our personal favorites include:

No standing up.
If you are starting to feel dizzy or getting a headache, take the headset off.
Do not flail hands or legs around to avoid causing potential accidents.

Virtual reality can sometimes be an intensely emotional experience. Remind students that if they are feeling overwhelmed, it’s OK to stop.

Technology. To get started, you’ll also need some basic technology. Here are some general requirements:

Internet: V.R. experiences can be downloaded or streamed. We recommend downloading the experience to the device so that streaming issues are avoided.
Mobile Device: Smartphones are essential to powering these experiences.
Headset: Choose a headset that makes the most sense for the mobile devices that you are using. There are mobile device-agnostic headsets that could work with a variety of phones. Prices start under $10 for a simple cardboard viewer and go up from there. Most headsets also come with compatibility specs, so that you can be better informed on how to pair accurately.
Without Headset: 360 videos can also be viewed without a headset, but the experience isn’t as immersive. When viewing 360 videos in this format, you can drag the screen while the video is playing to view the surrounding environment in 360 degrees.
Headphones: Headphones allow the user to be more immersed and reduce the disruption to the experience that could arise from using speakers.
Finding Experiences: The NYT VR app no longer exists, but you can view NYT VR experiences via your mobile device on The New York Times, or via the YouTube VR or Within apps on the Oculus. You can also find several Times 360 videos on TechRow, a subscription-based V.R. and video delivery system for the classroom.

Lesson 1: A Mission to Pluto

Video player loading — Set foot on an alien world, three billion miles from the warmth of the sun.

The NYT VR Video: “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart” (View on The New York Times or YouTube VR, 8 min.)

On July 14, 2016, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft zipped past Pluto and its moons, scanning the dwarf planet in unprecedented detail. Before this moment, the best images of Pluto were only a few fuzzy pixels wide.

In this virtual reality video, students will travel on New Horizons, gliding through space at a million miles a day. They will fly over Pluto’s rugged surface and smooth places, stand on icy mountains, and watch the moon Charon rise on the horizon and touch down on a frost-rimmed crater billions of years old.

Roles and Goals
Students have been selected to form a student space force to board the New Horizons spacecraft traveling to Pluto. As members of this elite team, their goal is to document their experience and share their insights on the dwarf planet with their peers.

Before Your Mission to Pluto
Have students write down at least five facts they know about Pluto. For example:

• What is Pluto?
• How big is Pluto?
• Where is it located in the solar system?
• What are some of its defining features?
• How many moons are in Pluto’s orbit?
• Can life exist on Pluto?

Compile students’ facts into a class list. They might check their facts, or find out more information, here.

Then, invite them to make a prediction based on what they already know: What do they think it would be like to visit Pluto?

During Your Mission
Now, students will experience the NYT VR video “Seeking Pluto’s Frigid Heart.” As they watch, they should pay attention to Pluto’s unique characteristics. After viewing, they should record what they observe about Pluto:

• Location in the solar system
• Surface features
• Temperature
• Gravity
• Moons
• Atmosphere

After Your Mission
Students should report back to the space command center to share the insights they gained on their mission. Invite them to reflect on the following questions in writing or discussion:

What was it like to “visit” Pluto in the V.R. film? How close were your predictions to what you experienced? Based on what saw, what do you think it would be like to actually go there?
What are some of the defining characteristics of Pluto? How do those compare to what you know about Earth?
What is one new thing we learned from the New Horizons mission to Pluto? What questions do you still have about the dwarf planet?
What do these insights reveal about the universe we live in?

To share what the New Horizons mission found when it flew past Pluto, The New York Times created this interactive based on images and information from NASA. Invite your students to demonstrate what they learned about Pluto by creating an original drawing or series of drawings and annotating them with key information about the dwarf planet.

Further Reading and Viewing
NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Sends Signal From Pluto to Earth
Images of Pluto From NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft

Lesson 2: Meet Three Children Displaced by War and Persecution

The NYT VR Video: “The Displaced” (View on The New York Times or YouTube VR, 11 min.)

More than 70 million people are currently displaced from their homes by war and persecution. Half are children. In this V.R. documentary, viewers travel to Ukraine, Syria and Sudan to learn the stories of three of those children.

Roles and Goals
Students have been invited to form a student council to explore the impact of civil war on children, refugees and internally displaced persons in Ukraine, Syria and Sudan. As members of this council, their goal is to share insights from their experience with their peers and identify ways they can support displaced people in their community and around the world.

Before Your Trip to Ukraine, Syria and Sudan
What do your students know about the global refugee crisis? Before they take off on their trip, have them create a K/W/L chart, either individually or as a class, to record what they know and what they want to know about the crisis.

Then, have students to look up the definitions of “refugee” and “displaced person.” They can add these definitions to their chart.

Finally, show students this three-minute clip (Facing History and Ourselves) of Samantha Power, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, giving an overview of the current refugee crisis. Invite them to discuss what they learned and the questions they have, and then add those to their K/W/L chart.

During Your Trip
Now students will embark on their virtual field trip to Ukraine, Syria and Sudan by watching “The Displaced.” As they watch, they should pay attention to the moments of “connection” and “disconnection” they have with the three children profiled in the film. In what ways are their personalities, families, homes, hopes and dreams, and life experiences similar? In what ways are they different?

After students have finished watching, they can journal or make a list in a T-chart about the “connections” and “disconnections” they have with the children.

Lastly, they can add anything new they learned about the refugee crisis to their K/W/L charts.

After Your Trip
Invite students back together to discuss their insights from the visit, either in writing or together as a class:

Which moments in the video were particularly surprising, moving or affecting to you?
What are some of the causes of displacement around the world? How does displacement affect the lives of children particularly?
How was virtually visiting Oleg, Hana and Chuol different than learning facts about the refugee crisis? What did it feel like to “be” there?
What are some things you found you had in common with these children? In what ways are your lives different? What do you think it would be like to be forced from your home?
If you could talk to these children, what questions would you ask them? What else would you want to know about their lives?

As members of this special student council, students should come up with a proposal for how they can support refugees or people who have been displaced.

They might start by watching Ms. Power talk about small steps individuals can take to help refugees in this one-minute video (Facing History and Ourselves).

Then, they can brainstorm actions they can take on a school level, a local level, a national level and an international level. For example, if there are refugees at their school or in their community, what could they do to support them? If students themselves are refugees, they might share their experiences and what support they would want most from others.

Here are some more resources to get them started:

Students might choose one of the actions they brainstormed and develop it into a plan for supporting refugees in their school, community or country.

Further Reading
The Displaced: Introduction
The Displaced: Oleg
The Displaced: Chuol
The Displaced: Hana

Lesson 3: Four Antarctic Expeditions

The NYT VR Videos: “The Antarctica Series” (View on The New York Times or YouTube VR, links below)

In this collection of four V.R. videos, viewers explore life on, above and below the Antarctic ice. They’ll dive under eight feet of ice with expert divers, fly in a helicopter through the McMurdo Dry Valleys, travel in a military plane over the Ross Ice Shelf, and join the people at McMurdo Station who make life possible on the least habitable continent.

Roles and Goals
Your school has decided to establish a student expeditionary force to Antarctica to explore life around the continent. Students’ goal is to document their experience and share it with their peers so they can better understand the Antarctic environment and landscape as a whole.

Students can choose from among these four expeditions:

In “Under a Cracked Sky” (10 min.), dive under eight feet of sea ice to swim with seals, explore ice caves and float above a dark seabed crawling with life.
In “Three Six Juliet” (11 min.), fly in a helicopter through the McMurdo Dry Valleys, one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
In “McMurdo Station” (9 min.), join the mechanics, cooks, drivers, firefighters, scientists and others who run a research station on the least habitable continent, thousands of miles from civilization.
In “A Shifting Continent” (15 min.), fly with scientists in a military cargo plane as they probe the structure of the Ross Ice Shelf, a Texas-size chunk of floating ice.

Before Your Antarctic Expedition
Have students choose the expedition they want to go on, or assign them to one, making sure each excursion has an even number of people.

Invite students to convene with the other students who are going on their expedition. In their groups, have them discuss what they already know about Antarctica. Then, based on their prior knowledge and the description of their V.R. experience, have them make a list of essentials they would likely need to take with them.

Finally, challenge them to make some predictions: What do they think they will find as they explore life on, above and below the Antarctic ice?

During Your Expedition
Now students will embark on their chosen Antarctic expedition from “The Antarctica Series.” As they watch, they should act like researchers, collecting data on their experience to report back to their classmates. They will become the “experts” on this particular piece of the continent, so it’s important they take detailed notes about their observations.

They can use the “If I Were There” journaling protocol to record what they find:

• If I were there, I would touch …
• If I were there, I would see …
• If I were there, I would hear …
• If I were there, I would smell …
• If I were there, I would taste …
• If I were there, I would feel …

After Your Expedition
Have students rejoin their small groups and synthesize the data they gathered from their expeditions before sharing it with their peers. They can discuss the following questions:

What was interesting or surprising about your journey?
What were some of the unique characteristics of the place you visited?
What are the conditions like for researchers there?
What have researchers learned from studying this specific piece of the continent? In what ways might this research contribute to our understanding of the world, the universe or ourselves?

Next, have at least one person from each group meet together in “teaching groups.” In these groups, each expert should have a chance to share what they learned on their respective expedition while the others take notes.

After everyone has had a chance to share, invite each group to discuss the following questions:

Could you see yourself doing any of the research jobs you observed in the V.R. videos? If so, which ones and why? If not, why not?
How do you think the research conducted by scientists in Antarctica might affect the world? In what ways might it affect your lives, if at all?
Do you think it is worthwhile for countries to spend time, money and resources studying Antarctica? Why or why not?

Further Reading
Antarctic Dispatches

Lesson 4: Time Travel Through Olympic History

The NYT VR Video: “The Modern Games” (View on YouTube VR, 9 min.)

In this virtual reality experience, created ahead of the 2016 Rio Games, The New York Times transports you to iconic Olympic moments throughout history. Viewers travel back in time to stand beside history-making track and field star Babe Didrikson, record-setting long jumper Bob Beamon, and the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt.

Roles and Goals
The New York Times has invited your students to create a virtual reality documentary exploring Olympic history. As members of this special team, their goal is to examine how The Mill, the visual effects and content creation studio responsible for “The Modern Games” documentary, transformed archival imagery into historical settings viewers can visit. Then, students will research and design a V.R. experience of another iconic Olympic moment to add to the video.

Before Your Exploration of Olympic History
Invite students to share their memories of Olympic Games they’ve been to, watched on television, or read or heard about.

Challenge them to be as specific as possible when describing their experiences: What do they remember most about this moment? Where were they and who were they with? What sights, sounds, tastes and smells come to mind when they relive this memory? What were they feeling? What thoughts were running through their heads? What was the social, political and cultural context during the year those games took place?

Then, have them explore the birth of what are known as the “modern Games” in Athens in 1896, either via this New York Times retrospect or these artifacts from Olympic.org.

How were the modern Games different from the Greek athletic competitions from which the Olympics originated? What were some of the highlights of these first Games? How do these Games compare to the ones your students have experienced?

During Your Exploration
Now, students will travel back in time to some of the most iconic Olympic events in “The Modern Games.” As they watch, they should choose one event to focus on and use the “If I Were There” protocol to record their observations:

After Your Exploration
Invite students to come back together to discuss their experience:

What was it like to experience iconic Olympic moments through V.R.? What can we learn from this medium that we may not get from written texts, photos and videos?
What role do the Olympics play in global history? What do they say about the cultural and political landscapes of the era in which they take place?
Can the Games be an opportunity to break through social barriers to inclusion? Give one example from the video.

Now, it is students’ turn. Assign small groups to choose one of the Olympic Games throughout history and design a V.R. experience for an important event, moment or person at those Games. They can learn more about how The Mill constructed the scenes in “The Modern Games” in this behind the scenes video.

As they put together their experience, they should consider the following questions:

What event, moment or person will be at the center of your experience?
What photo would you use as the setting for your scene?
Who would you interview and why?
What other sound effects would you use?
Where would you position users in the scene? What effect will this location have on their experience?
What experience would you want users to have as they navigate the video? What other visual or experiential aspects might you include? Why?

Students can present their designs via a mood board or story board created on Canva. Or, if they have the resources, they can produce their own V.R. videos.

Lesson 5: Decode the Secret Language of Dolphins and Whales

The NYT VR Video: “The Click Effect” (View on Within, 7 min.)

Until recently, most research on sperm whales’ communication had been conducted from a boat. Why? For one, few scientists were brave enough to swim with the world’s largest predator. And the animals tend to be scared off by the burbling of scuba gear or submarines and robots.

The best option for studying these mammals is free diving: diving dozens, sometimes hundreds, of feet on a single breath of air.

In this V.R. video, viewers join a journalist and a marine scientist on a free dive as they capture the secret “click” communication of dolphins and sperm whales.

Roles and Goals
Students have been invited to form an elite diving team to investigate the secret language of dolphins and whales. As a member of this elite team, their goal is to document their experience and test their hypothesis on whether whales and dolphins are “intelligent.”

Before Your Dive
First, have students research the animals they will be studying during their free dive: dolphins and sperm whales. They should compile a list of basic facts about the two species.

Then, if they haven’t already brought it up, explain that both animals use echolocation, a form of sonar that allows animals to “see,” and perhaps communicate with each other, under water.

They can test this out with an echolocation activity from Education.com. You’ll need at least two students to participate. One student will stand in the center of the room, blindfolded. To test his or her ability to locate sound, the other student will move around the room, clapping twice. Each time, the blindfolded student should point to where he or she thinks the sound is coming from. (If students are not in the classroom, they can watch this short video instead.)

Ask students: What does this experiment tell you about echolocation? Why might this skill be useful to whales and dolphins? Whether echolocation is a “language” is a topic scientists have debated for decades. Do you think it can be considered a form of communication? Why or why not?

Then, invite students to develop a hypothesis based on what they’ve learned so far: Are dolphins and whales “intelligent” in the way that humans are? That is, can they communicate, learn, understand and socialize? What more information would you need to know to answer this question? How might you go about collecting data to prove or disprove your hypothesis?

During Your Dive
Now students will free dive with whales and dolphins in the V.R. video “The Click Effect.” As they watch, they should make observations of the animals’ behavior.

When they are finished, they might create a T-chart, on one side citing evidence from the video that supports the claim that dolphins and sperm whales are intelligent, and on the other, evidence that might contradict that claim.

After Your Dive
Invite students to come back together to share the insights from their dive. They can reflect on the following questions in writing or discussion:

What was it like to virtually free dive and swim with dolphins and whales? How was it different from reading about them in the warm up?
What is one important discovery about dolphins and whales’ use of echolocation that scientists made in their research?
Fabrice Schnöller, a marine researcher, says that other animals can “see the world in a different way.” How did you see the world in a different way through this experience?
James Nestor, a journalist, claims that “Tens of millions of dollars are spent every year looking for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But there’s already intelligent life in the universe, and it’s right here,” in our oceans. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Have students write a report to send back to the lab summarizing their findings. After this expedition, do they believe that dolphins and whales are intelligent in the ways we conceive of intelligence? If they do not feel like they can answer this question yet, they can make a list of questions they would need to know the answers to before reaching a determination. How might they go about researching and collecting data for these questions?

Further Reading
Opinion | A Conversation With Whales

Lesson 6: Memorials and Justice

The NYT VR Video: “Remembering Emmett Till” (View on The New York Times, 8 min.)

In “Remembering Emmett Till: The Legacy of a Lynching,” Veda Shastri, Audra D.S. Burch, Tim Chaffee and Nicole Fineman write:

In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till of Chicago was accused of whistling at a white woman at a grocery store in Mississippi. He was later kidnapped, tortured, lynched and dumped in a river. Today, more than six decades later, the local communities in towns closely connected to Emmett’s story are grappling with the legacy of the lynching.

In this 360-degree documentary, students will travel with Audra D.S. Burch, a New York Times correspondent, to the Mississippi town where Emmett was killed. They will visit several key locations to explore the cultural reckoning happening now and examine the role that physical structures related to the Emmett Till case play in the efforts to memorialize him.

Roles and Goals
Students have been invited to form a student team of curators to help memorialize Emmett for the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Their goal is to visit the places that make up the narrative of what happened to Emmett and make suggestions for how the center can commemorate this painful history.

Before Your Visit to the Mississippi Delta
Invite students to do a quick-write responding to the following question:

How should a community memorialize a painful history — such as a murder, a riot, a lynching or a massacre inspired by racism?

Should it create informational markers, preserve old structures and build statues? Should it try to teach future generations what happened? Or, should it do nothing in an attempt to move on to a better future?

After students have finished writing, have them discuss their response with a partner.

During Your Visit
Now, students will travel to the place where Emmett’s murder took place, in the virtual reality documentary “Remembering Emmett Till.” As they watch, they should pay attention to the various markers of Emmett’s story shared in the film, as well as their own emotional reactions.

Have students journal about what they saw and heard, and how it made them feel. They might use the following prompts:

• One location that stood out to me was … because …
• One quote that resonated with me was … because …
• One emotion I had while watching was … because …
• One question I have is …

After Your Visit
Have students come back together to discuss what they learned. They can reflect on the following questions in writing or discussion:

What happened to Emmet Till over 60 years ago? How are the two communities where these events happened still grappling with the legacy?

Should the Emmett Till Interpretive Center stop trying to replace the bullet-riddled historical markers, as a way to show the world that some people still want to erase this painful history? Or should they rededicate a new marker, to ensure that vandalism doesn’t prevent people from learning about these events? (You can read this 2019 article to get an update on this story.)
Do historical signs and markers matter? Do you ever read them? Are they important to maintain?
What do you think the Emmett Till Interpretive Center should do next to help preserve the legacy of what happened in these towns? After watching the film, what would you advise?

Have students visit the Emmett Till Interpretive Center’s website to learn more about the center’s work. Then they can use their new knowledge to provide additional insights into answering the key question: How should these two communities memorialize this painful history?

Invite them to write up a proposal or sketch a design of one way these communities could commemorate Emmett’s legacy.

Further Reading
Emmett Till’s Murder, and How America Remembers Its Darkest Moments
Emmett Till Memorial Has a New Sign. This Time, It’s Bulletproof.

Lesson 7: The World’s Biggest Physics Experiment

The NYT VR Video: “Inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider” (View on The New York Times, 6 min.)

In this virtual reality experience, viewers travel beneath the fields of Switzerland and France to tour the largest microscope ever built. They’ll explore the ins and outs of the machine, hear about its future, and study the remnants of the Higgs boson, a long-sought particle that helps explain why there is mass, diversity and life in the cosmos.

Roles and Goals
Students have been invited to form a committee to study the Large Hadron Collider, developed by physicists at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, before it closes for upgrades. Their goal is to learn how the microscope works and share their findings with their peers.

Before Your Tour of the Large Hadron Collider
Have students begin by discussing these questions: Why are microscopes important? What do we use them for? What are some things we’ve learned about our world that we would not know without them?

Then, invite them to read about how CERN’s Large Hadron Collider works:

The collider is a kind of microscope that works by flinging subatomic particles around a 17-mile electromagnetic racetrack beneath the French-Swiss countryside, smashing them together 600 million times a second and sifting through the debris for new particles and forces of nature. The instrument is also a time machine, providing a glimpse of the physics that prevailed in the early moments of the universe and laid the foundation for the cosmos as we see it today.

What might scientists learn about the universe from this machine? In what ways might this knowledge be useful to us?

Finally, have them brainstorm questions they would want to ask the physicists of CERN about the collider.

During Your Tour
Now, students will travel beneath the French-Swiss countryside to tour the microscope in the V.R. video “Inside CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.” As they watch, they should pay attention to the different parts of the machine and how they work.

After the video, students should jot down what they learned about the following components of the collider and the role each plays:

• The “racetrack”
• The detectors
• Compact Muon Solenoid
• Atlas
• The computer banks

After Your Tour
Gather the students back together to share their insights with each other about CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Students can discuss what they learned using the following prompts:

What was your experience like inside the collider? What are some things you discovered on your tour?
Why was the discovery of the Higgs boson so significant? How did the collider aid in that discovery?
How do you think the research conducted by physicists using the Large Hadron Collider might affect the world? How might it affect you personally?

Now, have students create a model to illustrate how a subatomic particle would travel through the Large Hadron Collider.

The model can take any form students like, but they should remember that the goal is to help their peers understand how this microscope works. They might create a drawing or a digital illustration. If they have the resources, they can build a virtual model using 3-D software or a physical one using clay or some other material. They could create a comic or a short video that follows an animated proton on its journey through the collider. All models should include labels of the key elements they portray.

They can find more information in the article “It’s Intermission Time for the Large Hadron Collider.”

Finally, invite students to reflect: What did they learn from creating their model? What are its limitations? In other words, what is the model not able to show? What questions did this assignment raise for them?

Lesson 8: Journey to the Hottest Place on Earth

The NYT VR Video: “The Land of Salt and Fire” (View on The New York Times or YouTube VR, 6 min.)

Tectonic shifts are disrupting the traditional way of life for people in the Afar region in Ethiopia. In this V.R. video, students will be transported to Dallol, Ethiopia, the hottest place on Earth, where they will travel with camel caravans across salt flats and active geothermal zones, to find out how the Afar people are adapting.

Roles and Goals
Students have been invited to form an anthropological expedition to document life in Dallol. As members of this team, their goal is to document their experiences and share insights with their peers to better understand Dallol’s unique geography and people.

Before Your Excursion to Dallol
Before visiting the people and places they are studying, anthropologists always conduct background research. Have students do this by first finding Dallol on a map. Next, invite them to spend a few minutes doing a Google image search of “Dallol” and “salt trade,” an important economic activity in the region.

Then, discuss what they notice and wonder about what they see. Ask them:

• How would you describe the landscape of Dallol? What is unique about it?
• Where does the salt trade predominantly take place?
• How is salt mined? What tools are used?
• What might you expect to see on a visit to Dallol?

During Your Excursion
Now students will embark on their expedition by watching the NYT VR video “The Land of Salt and Fire.” As they watch, remind them that anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures, so they should pay special attention to how the people of Dallol have developed their society and what role the environment has played in it.

After they’ve finished, they can use the “If I Were There” protocol to record their observations:

After Your Excursion
Invite students to reconvene and discuss the discoveries they made. They can reflect on the following questions in writing or discussion:

What was interesting or surprising about their trip to Dallol? What did it feel like to “be there”?
What role has the salt trade played in the lives of the Afar people over generations?
What are the forces that are changing the Afar people’s traditional way of life? How are they adapting?
How can an environment influence a people’s way of life? How does the environment where you live influence how people live and work in your community?

The goal of anthropologists is to publish their findings so they can share what they’ve learned with the public. Students can create a one-pager to share their insights with their peers. They can summarize their findings with an illustration, a quote and a question they might want to ask the Afar people. Post the one-pagers around the classroom and have students do a gallery walk, or invite them to present their work in small groups.

Further Reading
Voyages: The Danakil Depression, Ethiopia

Travis Feldler is the founder of TechRow, a social enterprise that explores how to leverage immersive technology inside schools to improve learning outcomes.

October 30, 2020 at 02:40AM
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Virtual Reality: Realizing the Power of Experience, Excursion and Immersion in the Classroom - The New York Times

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Saturday, October 31, 2020

Virtual Reality: Realizing the Power of Experience, Excursion and Immersion in the Classroom - The New York Times

This guide is available as a downloadable PDF.

A Guide for Using NYT VR With Students

Getting Started With V.R. in the Classroom

Why Virtual Reality?

How to Use This Guide

Learning Strategies for V.R.

Tips for Getting Started With V.R. in the Classroom

Lesson 1: A Mission to Pluto

Lesson 2: Meet Three Children Displaced by War and Persecution

Lesson 3: Four Antarctic Expeditions

Lesson 4: Time Travel Through Olympic History

Lesson 5: Decode the Secret Language of Dolphins and Whales

Lesson 6: Memorials and Justice

Remembering Emmett Till

In this virtual reality documentary, we explore how the Mississippi towns where Emmett Till’s murder took place more than six decades ago are trying to memorialize him.

Lesson 7: The World’s Biggest Physics Experiment

Lesson 8: Journey to the Hottest Place on Earth

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