If you’ve been keeping up with our news, you might have heard that we have one member of the Eduporium team currently on a 74-day road trip around the US. Not only is Andy visiting some of the coolest sites in the country (the original purpose of the trip), he’s also brought with him 10 Merge Cubes that were donated by our friends at Merge. He’s dropping the cubes off to 10 educators across the country and has already made stops in Burlington, Vermont, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Yesterday, he made stop No. 5 and visited Jennifer Fischer, who teaches STEAM at the Mary B. Austin Elementary School in Mobile, Alabama!
As her school’s STEAM coach, Jennifer has the chance to use technology to engage her students in high-quality, project-based learning—something she understandably loves doing! She has used a variety of tech tools with her students so far, including Wonder Workshop robots, and we think that the Merge Cube we donated will provide her with something new for her students to try. Since they have had some good experiences with technology already (and have Jennifer to thank for that), we’re thinking they’ll be excited to try the augmented learning that the Merge Cube provides!
Jennifer also understands the importance of collaborating with her peers, allowing her students to collaborate, facilitating their learning experiences, and mentoring them while they progress. With the Merge Cube, she’ll be able to build on that and provide learning that’s appropriate for students in the different grade levels that she works with. Back when she originally applied for our technology grant, she made a point of saying that she would like other teachers in the school to be able to use any technology she would be awarded. And, this is the perfect opportunity for sharing since the Merge Cube is so compact and portable, allowing groups of teachers to learn together as they explore it!
Jennifer is also all about providing her students with learning experiences that will prepare them for life in the 21st century. The Merge Cube can definitely help with this as it exposes them to the very much emerging field of augmented reality. When they have one of the in-app lessons open and point their devices at the cube, they’re able to see interactive content displayed on their devices. Tapping the various on-screen prompts can open up new tabs with more information and keep kids engaged while allowing them to work together, which aligns pretty nicely with what Jennifer wants to have her STEAM lab be like!
Jennifer also mentioned in her original grant application that her school has quarter-long PBL units that are all separated into different themes. We’re hoping that she can tie her new Merge Cube into one of these units or maybe ultimately get some more into her classroom to create a more comprehensive unit! But, we’ll let her figure out the best ways to use the cube with her students. If she did want the whole class or the whole school to use their own cubes, however, there are subscription options available from Merge VR for one classroom worth of cubes and curricular content or enough for the whole school! Anyone can try it for free for 30 days, however!
We thank Jennifer for allowing us to stop by Mary B. Austin Elementary and for showing so much excitement! To keep up with any updates she shares, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. And, as always, we thank the Merge VR team for their generous donation and for making these road trip donations possible. Read more about some of the other stops we’ve made and look out next week when we make our next stop in North Carolina!