Eastern Suffolk BOCES technology integration specialist Nikki Fink visited  fourth-and fifth-grade students at Frank P. Long Intermediate School, taking them on virtual reality field trips through the use of Google Expedition Virtual Reality. Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability Marlon Small explained that the district is exploring the possibility of integrating Google Expedition technology into classrooms in the near future.

 The technology, which looks like the old-fashioned View Master, is equipped with applications which transport students into various three-dimensional worlds. Use of this technology is paralleled with specific curriculum, such as the study of outer space, animal adaptations and the human respiratory system.

“The students are more engaged when they use virtual reality, helping them to recall more information,” Ms. Fink said. “The information is more tangible to the student.”

Fourth-grade students visited outer space, where they identified all of the planets and various asteroids. The 360-degree view allowed the students to study identifying factors of each planet and some of their moons, as well as to gain perspective of the planets’ positions to the Sun and Earth. In Camilla Ciervo’s fifth-grade classroom, students gained perspective of the respiratory system using the technology to identify features of the mouth, nose and lungs. The technology even revealed what smoker’s lung looked like.