John Roche, a math teacher at Minnetonka High School, has recently implemented 30 virtual reality (VR) headsets in his classroom and curriculum. Each set includes a headset and a controller for each hand. Through a company called Prisms, Roche has been able to download certain apps for the headsets that allow students to apply their learning in real-world situations and visually see how graphs and equations work. 

“The VR headsets were an idea that Dr. Peterson brought us last fall. The first thing that really jumped out to me was how hands-on it allows math to be,” said Roche. “In other classes, like science, students get to experience a lot of labs, but there aren't as many hands-on ways to learn about math. I think that virtual reality is a really cool way to have a new and different learning experience in math, and a great way to connect it to the real world and see the connections around it.”

Students have used the headsets a few times so far this year, and Roche plans to continue exploring the new possibilities of applying the headsets to future lessons.

“An example of a lesson where we used virtual reality is a lesson we just did about sea levels rising,” he continued. “The students had to collect data about glacial melt by collecting rain drops, and then building graphs to model it.  So far its been a really cool way to get students at the center of how what they are learning might be applied to real-world situations and really drive their learning.”

With each new lesson, students have learned how to make graphs and apply equations to different situations, reflecting the next day on what they learned. With the inclusion of both traditional math lessons, the virtual reality, and the follow-ups after the lessons, the student response to the use of the headsets in class has been overwhelmingly positive. 

Roche said that using the VR headsets has been a learning opportunity both for him and his students. "They didn't really have an idea of what VR learning would look like, and honestly neither did I,” explained Roche. “But as we’ve gotten used to the controllers and the tech, while also understanding the material, as we have done more lessons, the response has been increasingly positive. It's really exciting to hear as a teacher that the students are looking forward to class and to learn in this way. It makes it all worth it.”