On Friday 31st March, Alberto Costa MP visited Badgerbrook Primary School in his constituency of South Leicestershire to join Year 4 pupils as they enjoyed a virtual reality lesson, courtesy of Google Expeditions.
The Expeditions programme, organised by the technology company, allows pupils to take field trips right from the classroom with teachers acting as ‘guides’ to lead classroom-sized groups of ‘explorers’ through collections of 360° and 3D images while pointing out interesting sites along the way.
Alberto said, “It was a pleasure to join the Year 4 pupils at Badgerbook for their virtual reality expedition today. Google are doing incredibly good work in rolling these free sessions out to schools which offer a more immersive and interactive means of learning and I’m delighted that the very forefront of technology is being used and enjoyed by pupils in South Leicestershire”.
Badgerbrook Primary School Head Teacher, Mrs Fiona Jones, added, “Badgerbrook Primary School was delighted to welcome Alberto Costa MP to our Google Expeditions Pioneer Programme Experience. This Google Experience seeks to provide scenarios for pupils to engage with virtual reality to enhance learning activities in a school setting and beyond. Year 4 pupils excitedly discussed their virtual underwater journey with him, after they had explored and interacted with the state of the art technology”.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said, “Virtual reality can spark students’ imagination and help them learn about topics like how blood flows through the human body or the impact climate change is having on the Great Barrier Reef, in an engaging and immersive way. We’ve already received feedback from thousands of teachers in the UK and they believe that Expeditions can improve literacy and writing skills, and help create excitement to complement traditional teaching methods.”
Alberto concluded, “The Google Expeditions programme offers a new and innovative means of learning, and Google themselves have set a target of offering these sessions to over 1 million pupils across the UK and so I would encourage all schools both in my constituency and beyond to take advantage of this excellent, free opportunity”.
Picture above shows Alberto Costa MP (L) with Badgerbrook Primary’s Year 4 class and their virtual reality headsets.