Topeka elementary school students take field trips across the world thanks to VR

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Eight-year-old Millie described the first time she put on a virtual reality headset.

“You feel like you’re standing on air, but when you look down you actually see a lot of things, and you can see different instruments that you might have never seen before.”

McClure music instructor Krystal Markham heard about the unique learning opportunity during a teachers’ meeting over the summer.

“One of our district leaders mentioned that the district has a couple sets of these VR headsets and that if we ever wanted to check them out to let him know. So the week after labor day, I thought it would be a great opportunity to bring it here to McClure to let the kids have an opportunity to see something that they have never done before.”

Now students can visit places all over the world while they are inside of the classroom in Topeka.

“One of the places that we saw was the Abbey Road recording studio, and a lot of famous people like Pink, The Beatles, they have recorded there and so it was amazing for the kids to see that up close and the equipment that it takes to record music that they might hear on the radio,” said Markham.

But Millie said the music studio wasn’t even the most interesting place her and her classmates visited on Friday.

“Probably when we went under the sea and there was the sea turtles that were right in front of our faces and that was really cool.”

Markham said VR can help teachers with lesson plans for any subject.

“This could be used for many different things, not just music. They can use it for history, they can use it for science. They can visit famous landmarks that they might never have the opportunity to travel to.”

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