Woodland Primary Students Test Augmented Reality Technology

A group of 348 kindergarten and some dual language kindergarten students at Woodland District 50 experienced tornadoes, earthquakes, camouflaged animals and even space recently thanks to cutting-edge technology through the Google for Education Pioneer Program called Google Expeditions AR (augmented reality).

"It was like an in-house field trip," said Kate Luxon, math specialist at Woodland Primary School, who submitted an application to Google in hopes that students could have a sneak peek at Expeditions AR, an unreleased feature of the Expeditions app that offers a new learning dimension for students to more easily grasp abstract concepts. By combining digital content with reality, the technology provides for students to be immersed into a classroom experience.

Teachers were first trained by a Google representative so they could facilitate the experience with students and throughout one day, the kindergarteners learned by using an app on a mobile device attached to a metal stick. Luxon said students pointed their individual devices toward a QR code and then the object appeared as three-dimensional. Students could walk around the object using the device.

Woodland Primary Principal Stacey Anderson said, "The students truly enjoyed the experience."