Imagine visiting the bottom of the sea or surface of Mars in an afternoon. With the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program, teachers can take their classes on immersive virtual journeys to bring their lessons to life. Expedition teams are visiting selected schools around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, Denmark, the United States and the Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
On Wednesday, Jan. 6 from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center of Chagrin Falls Middle and High School Campus 400 W. Washington Street in Chagrin Falls, Google will bring a complete Expeditions kit with everything teachers need to take their students on a journey anywhere. Expeditions are guided tours of places school buses can’t go using Google Cardboard. Google Cardboard is a virtual reality viewer made almost entirely of actual cardboard. Cardboard allows anyone with a modern smartphone to experience virtual reality. There will be more than two million in circulation by the end of the year.
The Expeditions are comprised of virtual reality panoramas– 360° photo spheres, 3D images and video, ambient sounds — annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that make them easy to integrate into curriculum already used in schools–led by a guide or teacher. There is no cost to the district for students and teachers to participate.
The seventh grade science classes will see various biomes across the world and compare the conditions and biodiversity in each. The eighth grade science classes will discover volcanoes. Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, which faces Alaska across the Bering Sea, contains a belt of around 160 volcanoes. At least 29 of them are active. In this Expedition, Chagrin Falls’ students get a close-up look at Tolbachik, one of those active volcanoes, and learn about why this region has so many volcanoes.
The AP Environmental Science high school class will journey through an ancient rainforest that once covered all of Borneo. They will start by climbing up into a canopy viewing station that overlooks the horizon of this virgin rainforest. Finally, the US History high school students will experience an up close look at the battleships of World War II and the modern-day sites of this historical war, bringing students into museums and giving them a look not only state side but on the European side as well.
On Jan. 25, the Google Expedition team will visit the students at Chagrin Falls Intermediate School.
The Wildlife Conservation Society, PBS, the American Museum of Natural History, the Planetary Society, and the Palace of Versailles contributed to developing the curriculum for students.
