Education on 6: Virtual Reality at Sheridan Tech High School – NBC 6 South Florida

We walked into Richard Bermans physics class at Sheridan Tech High School in Fort Lauderdale and found him with some kind of sci-fi-looking goggles on his head and a controller in his hand.

Youre going to click on this and its gonna open up this world, Berman is telling his students.

A world of possibilities called mixed reality, a combination of virtual surroundings with the physical world through the Magic Leap goggles.

A computer monitor shows the kids what their teacher is seeing.

Then the students get their first crack at trying the system.

Its like youre actually experiencing it, one student says.

I see bricks on the floor and Im trying to make it stack up, says her classmate.

The students are on the cutting edge of technology, using the headsets made in Broward County by Magic Leap.

Its like what you see in the movies, were slowly getting to what we see like Tony Stark with his high advanced technology, I feel thats where were going with this, said student Demond Thomas.

I asked him if he thinks hes Iron Man when he wears the headset.

Pretty much, yeah, Demond said with a chuckle.

So far, eight high schools in the Broward County Public School district have the Magic Leap system. The Florida Panthers hockey team donated 25 of the headsets to the school district. The goal, no pun intended, is to eventually have the system in every high school.

You know that when you drop something gravitys gonna take over, it actually behaves based on the laws of physics, Berman says, as he demonstrates the system.

As a physics teacher, he should know. Berman says the mixed reality technology will be a powerful teaching tool because concepts and data can be turned into a visual, immersive experience.

My mind is just racing, Berman said. But I really see that for some people that might have a hard time with certain concepts this could really be a game changer, especially for some of the more high-tech or advanced concepts in physics or in science of any stripe.

Learning about things that are not easily tangible, added Dr. Lisa Milenkovic, the districts STEM supervisor. Like climate change, change the year to 2030, what temperature is it gonna be, and hows the sea level gonna change because of that.

The options in a system like this are limited only by the students or the teachers creativity, so its definitely not just for science geeks.

Its a way to engage students that wouldnt normally think of themselves as scientists or computer scientists, right now they say oh, this is cool, let me make something, an artist, a musician, theres apps for that, too, Milenkovic explained.

The next step is coding. Students will be developing their own apps for the Magic Leap system, working with engineers from the company.

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Education on 6: Virtual Reality at Sheridan Tech High School - NBC 6 South Florida

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