Dive Brief:

• The NBA partnered with an education organization to make a virtual reality math lesson, while a California high school is leveraging fascination with TV hit show CSI in an attempt to engage students’ interests, according to District Administration. 
• “Careers That Count” is a VR presentation in NBA headquarters and Madison Square Garden in New York, and is part of a multi-year partnership with Discovery Education that intends to use basketball skills and techniques to illustrate mathematics concepts. ​
• Nearly 350 students participate in the forensic biotechnology program at James C. Enochs High School in Modesto City, CA. Students will learn biology, DNA fingerprinting and can view an autopsy examination on a field trip to a coroner’s office in senior year.

Dive Insight:

Organizations like Design2Learn stress the need to utilize students’ interests and passions when trying to illustrate STEM concepts, which can often be perceived as “boring” or “dry.” Some schools apply current events to the classroom; one school learned how to design water filters while the headlines concerned the clean water controversy in Flint, MI. An approach which embraces the practical uses of tech tools frontloaded, can also be used to introduce concepts via experimentation.

Virtual reality tours can be a particularly strong way to introduce STEM concepts that may be otherwise unattainable for school districts on a budget, as they can be for prospective college students who may not have the means to tour a college before enrolling. With STEM tools sometimes beyond the reach for schools due to cost, mobile VR use could be a comparatively inexpensive method to introduce students to previously unseen learning experiences, from forensic laboratories to basketball courts.