Fifth graders painted stones with
inspirational messages to encourage those
affected by the mass shooting in Squirrel
Hill last fall.
This winter, students in
Chris Colonna’s World
History classes traveled to the
site of Machu Picchu –
without leaving the
classroom. With the use of
virtual reality technology, the
ruins of the ancient
settlement came to life by
way of a viewfinder that
provided a 360-degree
Eighth grader Jada Adams peers into a cardboard
landscape of the Native
viewfinder to explore the ancient sites of Machu Picchu.
American civilization. To
complete an assignment,
students determined the type of stone
used to construct Machu Picchu and
explored an area of the Inca Trail. They
identified a nearby river and its tributaries,
the closest mountain range, and calculated
sea level.
By downloading an app to a mobile
phone and encasing the phone inside a
cardboard viewfinder or headgear, students
are empowered to become explorers of a
land they made never have the opportunity
The virtual reality experience is
to see in real time. The VR technology
immersive; one can almost feel as if
allows students to sight-see and discover
they are on site. While looking through
the viewfinder, Juliansi Valdez waves
national parks, cities across the world, and
to people he sees touring the site of
historical places in time, simply by peering
Machu Picchu while Nathan Best waits
for a chance to explore the ruins.
into the lens of a virtual world.
SIGHT-SEEING WITH VR