AISD introduces VR to middle and high school classrooms for immersive engagement

The Amarillo Independent School District Board of Trustees announced Monday evening during their meeting the upcoming introduction of Virtual Reality technology, to be available as learning material for high school and select middle school math and science classes.

AISD Board of Trustees approved the upfront, year one purchase in the amount of $189,000 for the VR plan, utilizing ESSER grant funds to support the cost. The optional annual renewal cost is estimated at a total of $50,140 for the next three years.

Virtual reality is a computer application that allows users to experience immersive, three dimensional visual and audio simulations.

"This is one of the exciting things that we have seen as something new and secondary in a long time. It's exciting for us all the way down to the classroom teacher," said AISD Assistant Superintendent David Bishop.

According to the district, the purchase plan is to utilize the VR equipment at all four AISD high schools and select middle schools including the campuses of Austin, Bowie, and Bonham Middle Schools, to enhance math and science classes. In addition to the purchasing the VR hardware and software, the purchase plan will include site support professional development and data reviews with district leadership. As established by a district evaluation team, it was determined that Prisms of Reality was determined to be the highest ranked responsive proposer.

Bishop said while presenting the action item to the board that the idea and equipment were presented to middle school principals, then the district's middle and high school curriculum and learning leaders, and finally teachers, who were each excited about the technology and possibilities to integrate real life simulations into the classrooms.

"We've heard this forever, and you've probably heard it and wondered it yourself: 'Why do I need to know the quadratic equation?' 'When will I ever use that?' 'Slope, when will I ever use that when I'm solving for X?' And this gives us now a practical approach where kids can actually see the outcome of what they are learning and how they can apply it in everyday life," Bishop added.

AISD officials said they plan to begin utilizing the VR equipment as a tool for teaching the core curriculum of eighth-grade math and Algebra I in the select middle school an high schools some time in the spring semester, and then will add the utilization of the equipment for eighth-grade science and biology in the fall. According to AISD, the usage of the equipment was teacher driven and is completely optional for teachers to utilize in each of their classrooms.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo ISD OKs new VR learning for math, science scenarios