Bio Classes Experiment with Virtual Reality
Ms. Ly’s 5th Period AP Biology class gets a taste of an educational virtual reality. Photo: The Real Midwood High School Facebook Account
By HAN XIN OU YANG and NATHANAELLE JOSEPH
You eagerly press the buttons in your palm and step toward the floating display in front of you. The directions appear midair, instructing you to enter your numerical values. Your eyes quickly scan around the vast laboratory and beyond, where beautiful green trees and a bright blue sky shimmer in the sun.
This is what AP Biology students experienced for the first time this year, with virtual reality from PRISMS, using VR headsets and motion controllers.
Assistant Principal of Living Science Mr. Tovia Rosenfeld, who has been teaching biology at Midwood for over 20 years, and Ms. Cynthia Ly, an AP Bio teacher, expressed their excitement about VR’s potential.
“VR is great for student differentiation because students learn at their own pace and the experience for each individual is memorable,” said Ms. Ly. “Instead of passive learning, students are actively engaged and motivated to participate.”
Breniece Ng ’25 believes that incorporating VR in school learning “is great for those who struggle in class,” especially if they find lectures boring.
“It’s not just AP Bio,” said Mr. Rosenfield. “We’ve given [VR headsets] to Living Environment students, Psychobio, and we’re going to open it up to many more science classes.”
Students shared their thoughts on the experience, revealing a blend of enthusiasm and newfound appreciation for their class.
“I feel that VR being used in classrooms is a fun way to learn more school topics," said senior Orin Akter. “It gets students to engage and learn more not only about the subject of the class but also about technology.”
For now, Virtual Reality is more of a supplementary tool. “I would not use it in place of lectures as I think learning the topic from a teacher first helps the student grasp the basics,” said senior Janetta Yanova.
Of course, like every technology, VR headsets have a lot of room for improvement. “I’d love to see [an update] where the teacher can monitor students simultaneously between different modules,” said Mr. Rosenfeld. “This would allow teachers to provide more targeted guidance, making sure that no student falls behind in their virtual experience.”
Currently, the tech is limited to simple tasks like picking up objects and maneuvering through a VR space.
Ms. Ly is also teaching Medical Ethics. She said she could envision her students “utilizing VR to be placed in situations where they must decide whether a clinical trial is ethical or not.”
“It would be super helpful to have an AI-powered virtual tutor that can suggest study strategies or give helpful hints for students when they are engaged in their simulations,” Ms. Ly added.
Some users had challenges using the VR headset and motion controllers.
“I've never used a VR headset before, so putting it on my head and figuring out how things went was definitely a bit confusing at first,” said junior Lena Li. “Sometimes the headsets would also disconnect and glitch out, so you would have to reboot it.”
Despite these initial challenges, many students still felt joy in interacting with a virtual world that emulated their real-life classroom demonstrations.
Li said, “I was able to grab things in a lot of the lab demos I did for biology class, and the technology is super cool.”
In general, students found both pros and cons.
“It is beneficial to learning as it is student-paced and allows students to choose from a variety of different lessons,” said Samantha Lam ’25. “With the use of VR, however, students don’t interact and learn from their teachers and peers, which also takes away from creating an engaging learning environment for student-to-student interaction, as well as teacher-to-student interaction.”
As the technology improves, expect to see more VR in the classroom, as the possibilities for enhancing education seem endless.