Students in Greenfield’s middle school and high school have a new educational tool by way of virtual reality headsets that will help students apply what they are learning to real-life scenarios.

“The purpose of the virtual reality experience is to provide students with real-world experiences using difficult math and science concepts,” Greenfield Director of Instruction Alisa Barrett said. “The experience provides the opportunity for them to make connections to the concepts they are learning in class and sets a purpose for the age-old question ‘When will I ever use this in real life?’”

The Prisms virtual reality headsets will be used in math classrooms for grades 7-12, as well as high school biology and chemistry classes.

The high school math department recently trained on the headsets and the middle school math and high school science teachers will go through their training in November, Barrett said.

“Virtual reality allows students to see real-life applications of the math they are learning and it offers them the opportunity to experience the math hands-on,” said Angie Barber, the high school’s math department chair. “Students are able to manipulate the math within virtual reality and see the relationships between various parts of mathematical equations and graphs. We are excited for the opportunity to use Prisms to enhance what students are already learning in the classroom.”

Barrett said that each course contains five to six modules to use throughout the school year in addition to the core curriculum. Each of the modules contains a two-part experience with the headsets and a third part for the class to discuss what they learned during the experience. She said on average students will use the headsets 10 to 15 times over the course of the school year.

“The experiences students will have using virtual reality are beyond any type of tangible lab we could provide in our classrooms,” she said. “For example, to help middle school math students learn about the concept of slope and linear functions using the virtual reality headset, students will physically experience the melting rate of a glacier to create tables, graphs and equations, all in an effort to help the city of Miami predict when their coastline will be at risk for flooding.”

Barrett said the district last year spoke with other districts across the state that are using the Prisms headsets to learn about their experiences with them. Additionally, a group of Greenfield educators went to a school in Dayton earlier this year to witness first-hand that school’s use of the Prisms virtual reality headsets in an algebra classroom. All of this was used to make an informed decision regarding the purchase of the technology. That purchase consists of two sets of the headsets that will be shared between the classes.

“We are so excited to be able to offer this learning experience to our students as we aspire to help students make connections from the classroom to the real world,” Barrett said.

Angela Shepherd is a correspondent for the Greenfield Exempted Village Schools.