SCIENCE VR CASE STUDY: Seasonal Change (Student Age 5-6)
“Children had been learning about seasonal change; we focused on the characteristics and features of Autumn, Winter and Spring to provide scaffolding and background about the other seasons, thinking about how they each feel, smell and look.”
Iona Bullard
Age 5 – 6 Infant School Teacher (UK)
PRACTICAL SESSION
In talking partners, children were asked to think of all the words they could think of about Summer; they were challenged to think of as many words as they could. I scribed the children’s comments and encouraged a discussion about the season; the children then went to their tables to explore and experience summer images from the seasonal Playlist. They were asked to write sentences about what they could see, focusing on their senses and use of vivid, powerful language. We then undertook a word association game for the season of summer and I gave them a challenge to think of more than 15 words, having now experienced the Virtual Reality. I then scribed their new and improved ideas on the whiteboard.
IMPACT ON LEARNING
The children seemed to really enjoy using the ClassVR headsets. Our school is 98% EAL and the language they gained from using ClassVR was great to see. As many of them have never seen summer like the one in the picture, it enabled a multisensory and visualised approach to enriching their learning. Further, it encouraged them to work in a team, by sharing the ClassVR headsets and using dialogue to explain the wonderful sights they were seeing. They also showed responsibility in how they handled the equipment and were eager to do the writing activity afterwards.
