Universities, schools, and training teams across the globe are consistently looking for new ways to inspire, enlighten, and engage a new generation of students. As the world becomes more complex, with various new technologies and concepts to understand, the educational landscape is evolving.
Helping students to grasp complicated topics and develop specialist skills requires educators to invest in the best possible resources and tools. Extended Reality, in the form of VR headsets, AR applications, and MR tools, are quickly emerging as a critical solution. These innovations allow teachers to immerse students in learning experiences wherever they are, without the risks associated with in-person training.
To inspire innovative students in the chemistry landscape, Nowa Era created a powerful new virtual reality lab with technology from HTC VIVE. Here’s how VIVE and Nowa Era are enabling the chemistry experts of the future.
Exploring New Opportunities in Education
On a global scale, companies and educational facilities everywhere are facing the challenges involved with empowering a new era of world-changing experts. As the barriers to learning grow more complex, countless organisations are beginning to turn to technology as a tool for better student and teacher interactions. Over the last couple of years in particular, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of schools using technology to enable remote, immersive learning.
One particular challenge facing schools today, is figuring out how to provide wide variety of learning experiences, without overspending on budgets. Ideally, every learning institution would likely love to have endless resources, modern computer systems and amazing facilities. However, costs also need be considered, as schools have limited budgets.
Fortunately, companies like Nowa Era are introducing new solutions. Committed to introducing a new era of learning to students around the world, Nowa Era is diving head-first into a new world of technology innovations. The company created the “Empiriusz Virtual Laboratory” specifically to tackle the issues of delivering safe and engaging chemistry lessons.
Bringing VR to Chemistry
According to Nowa Era, chemistry is an essential educational topic for many young people thinking about a career in Poland. It’s also important to analysing how the world works overall. Both secondary and primary schools in Poland teach chemistry lessons as part of their central curriculum, and this curriculum often involves hands-on elements to help students practice what they learn.
Unfortunately, there’s often a challenge involved in delivering these hands-on learning experiences. Facilities need to be able to support students of different ages, as experiments can often vary in terms of difficulty and risk. Precautions need to be taken when it comes to storing and using chemicals, leveraging crucial safety equipment, and disposing of various substances.
These complex requirements can become increasingly difficult to address in an environment with minimal funding. Many schools simply can’t build laboratory environments suitable for meeting the high standards of safety required to get all students involved. This often means teachers are required to carry out experiments on their own, while students watch from a distance.
Building a Hands-on Learning Experience
To allow for a more hands-on experience for students, leading immersive tech company Nowa Era decided it was time to implement new technology. Creating the Empiriusz Virtual Lab with the VIVE Cosmos VR headset, the company introduced a new way for students to engage with experiments without the unnecessary risk and expense.
The Empiriusz Virtual laboratory is a phenomenal VR experience, allowing anyone to use a headset to complete an experiment in absolute safety. Rather than simply watching teachers carry out chemical processes, students can physically move VR controllers and interact with different chemicals.
Using technology from the Unreal Engine, The Nowa Era brand was even able to accurately replicate colours and chemical reactions, so students could get a clearer view of how experiments would work in real life. The VIVE Cosmos headset is bundled into the learning solution by Nowa Era, to create a portable chemistry lab capable of travelling to all classrooms, and engaging every student.
The design of Nowa Era’s software, combined with the durable and immersive experience offered by VIVE Cosmos ensures schools can access innovative experiences at a lower cost than that required for an entire chemistry laboratory. At the same time, the technology is designed to adapt to the long-term needs of countless classes of students.
Sophisticated New Learning Experiences
Teachers leveraging Nowa Era’s technology have already shared their feelings about the sophistication of the solution, and its ability to help educate young people. According to school faculty, the VR experience allows for more unique lessons, while ensuring a wider number of students can get involved. At the same time, preparation takes less time for teachers, and post-lesson clean-up and maintenance are easier to manage.
Schools throughout Poland have begun to see significant savings in time and cost with chemistry lessons, offering benefits to both students and teachers alike. The Principal of Jausz Korczak Primary School, Mariola Świderska-Kulka said the Virtual Laboratory is a phenomenal device capable of enhancing any curriculum. Students can perform real experiments and engage in virtual reality experiences to really connect to lessons.
According to Mariola, the Empiriusz Virtual Laboratory is helping to get more students engaged in discovering what chemistry is all about. Modern technology is something every student enjoys interacting with. At the same time, the school can ensure it’s meeting all compliance requirements when it comes to health and safety.
Thanks to HTC VIVE and Nowa Era, the next generation of students across Poland will now have an opportunity discover the amazing elements of chemistry. More importantly, they’ll be able to test their skills in a safe and affordable environment. Already, Nowa Era is beginning to implement the feedback received from educators, and is developing various new simulations to add to the software.
