'Wonder and awe' as York primary school kids visit VR volcanoes

The Year 3 and Year 4 children from Melbourne Primary School, along with Stamford Bridge Primary School - both members of the Wonder Learning Partnership multi-academy trust - not only had an immersive experience, but also absorbed a "considerable amount of information" while doing it, teachers said.

One of the Year 4 teachers said: “The children were very excited about trying VR in the lead up to it and certainly weren’t disappointed. As soon as they put the headsets on, their faces were a mixture of wonder and awe.

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"The fascination and delight they experienced was tangible in the room. When I asked them about what they had learnt, I was amazed at how much they’d taken in and the complex vocabulary they were using to reply to questions, like lava, magma and tectonic plates.

"There is no doubt that this immersive form of learning is very powerful.”

During the workshop the children visited three different types of volcano, situated in Russia and Indonesia. In addition to the headsets, they used an atlas to pinpoint the countries they were visiting, creating further learning opportunities.

The school children visited volcanoes during the sessions (Image: Supplied)

Gareth Davies, head of curriculum and assessment at Wonder Learning Partnership, said: “We believe this form of learning has an important place in the curriculum as it enables children to experience things that would be very difficult, expensive and sometimes impossible to do in real life, without having to set foot outside of the classroom.

"We have mapped VR into many of our school units. For example, when children come to study Chinese history or polar regions we will be accessing the virtual tours of China and the arctic. We hope to extend this opportunity to secondary school pupils in the months ahead.

“VR also complements our enrichment activities that are in person as well as virtual, such as visits to museums, local geographically significant locations, visiting speakers and touring artefacts.”

The technology was brought to the classroom by PrimeVR, a VR workshop company for schools, which offers a wide variety of workshops that are linked to the national curriculum. 

Gareth added: "Our teachers work hard to bring to life phenomenon, past times and places that children may have never experienced or seen in real life.

"VR is another tool to fire up their imagination, build their sense of wonder, and develop a life-long love of learning and curiosity to explore.”