Melican Students Take Virtual Reality Field Trips

NORTHBOROUGH --- Melican Middle School students now have the opportunity to explore far away places and discover new things with the use of Virtual Reality (VR) glasses, thanks to a grant from the Northborough Education Foundation (NEF).

NEF awarded the grant of $10,700 to Michelle Karb, principle at Melican Middle School, this past September. With the funds, she was able to purchase 50 Apple iPods and 50 Homido Mini VR Glasses to make up 2 sets per classroom. The VR sets offer the students the ability to take virtual field trips where they can be immersed in the lessons by visualizing what they are learning about without having to leave the classroom.

“Thanks to this grant,” says Karb, “students at Melican will be able to view and appreciate the world in which they live like never before, and it will play an important role in the continued growth of Melican students as global citizens.”

Michael Groccia, Instructional Technology Specialist at Melican, has used the VR sets to teach 6th grade students about population density and the impacts it has on living standards. Through the use of the VR sets, the students were able to see first hand how this has impacted cities like Mexico City and Tokyo.

“The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in classrooms has engaged Melican students and provided high-interest learning activities, as well as transported them to places such as Mexico City, Tokyo, and the Greenland Ice Shelf,” says Groccia. “Visiting these far away places through virtual reality has given students a unique perspective and opened them up to appreciating areas of the world unfamiliar to many of them. The immersive experience of virtual reality field trips is another way for students to master learning objectives.”

“Our students loved using this technology!” said Danielle Lebeouf, a science teacher at Melican who used the VR glasses for a unit on glaciers. “It was a wonderful opportunity for them to visit a glacier and apply some of the vocabulary we've been learning about in class to a real life scenario. For almost all, this was their first time seeing a glacier. Giving them the chance to see the safety gear used by glaciologists and how scientists collect important ice cores was incredible. The VR glasses improved how we teach this content by giving students a chance to use their senses to experience the material. The lesson was such a success, we are already thinking about other topics we can use VR to support.”

When asked about the use of the VR glasses, Samantha Capes, a 7th grade student at Melican said, “It gave us a chance to really experience what our teachers have been talking about and let us learn further about the arctic glaciers. Plus it was very fun!”

Students Nithya Rajeshkanna and Stajia Toussaint said “This was our first time seeing a glacier and we were amazed that we could go inside the glacier,” and Reagan Locke added “The VR glasses made you feel like you were there!”

All of the teachers and students at Melican look forward to using the VR glasses throughout the year across many disciplines, including history, geography, foreign language, science, and technology engineering.

In September 2018, NEF awarded $68,000 to 20 grant recipients. Along with Melican, Marion E. Zeh, Fannie E. Proctor, and Marguerite E. Peaslee elementary schools all received grants for VR sets to be used for virtual field trips.

The Northborough Education Foundation (NEF) is a volunteer-run organization that provides Northborough teachers and administrators with the resources necessary to improve curriculum, programs and services beyond the level supported by the annual school budget. Through a variety of fundraising initiatives, NEF helps finance the costs of extraordinary curriculum and staff development projects, student services and activities, special programs, equipment purchases and other efforts in order to foster creativity and nurture and develop a bright and enthusiastic generation of learners. For calendar year 2019, NEF has the generous support of platinum sponsor, Sullivan-Kreiss Financial.

NEF is a tax exempt charitable organization under 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. All qualifying donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. All donations can be mailed to Northborough Education Foundation, PO Box 1094, Northborough, MA 01532. For questions about NEF or how a business can become a sponsor, please visit www.northboroughed.org.