The Merge Cube is a lot of fun!  We've played with that as well.  There is definitely a need for more content with AR.  We assumed that there would be more AR content available but are finding it is quite limited.  The available AR content is often not very deep, so we are developing content as we create learning labs.  

Students create their AR apps to go along with their challenge project prototypes.  They will use the apps to deepen their explanations of their projects at our annual Expo Fest.  Historically a few projects from Expo Fest have applied for patents and we are working on ways to expand this opportunity for students to take their projects further.  

We do plan to create learning labs for Earth Science in year 2 or 3 of this project.   

Nice work. It is great to see the students so involved. We too work with VR/AR and have created an app called HoloGLOBE which uses the Merge Cube. It focuses on displaying various satellite data that you may wish to look at as you expand into the Earth and Space sciences. It does add substance for much of the imagery/data is real time.

Great question.  We are using AR to do a little bit of both.  For examples, we have created some AR powered worksheets where the kids can hold their phone at the trigger on the worksheet and then a video related to the content appears.  Of course they could just as easily go to the computer and watch the same video, but we hypothesize that having the AR trigger right on the worksheet will be fun and engaging.  We also have AR that is intended to deepen their understanding of content.  For example, when students are learning about DNA transcription and translation we will have an AR app that allows students to start by looking at the human body then zooming into the body into a cell, into the nucleus, into the DNA and then watch the transcription take place.  As kids create their own AR apps that go along with their project prototypes we are challenging them to think of ways to use AR to illustrate something that could not be done in another way.  We want to encourage them to make it not AR just for fun, but AR to further explain their prototype.  We will see what we get!

We are using Zapworks for the students to make their own AR.  The AR experiences we make will be available as we create.  Our Learning Labs will also be open resource once we write, implement, and revise.  We are watching AR grow in so many industries so we are eager to get it into kids' hands and expose them to both using AND creating AR.  

Each summer we’ve conducted PD for teachers but have not yet done much PD with teachers around using AR as we are only a few months into the grant.  We anticipate one of the obstacles will be the teachers’ unfamiliarity with the technology.  Ironically, I think teachers have had to become really familiar with tech really fast due to the transition to remote learning.  We are hoping the more universal use of technology and trying out new tools will open teachers up to trying to use AR in the classroom.  We find one of our best tools is to make brief video tutorials that show how different tools work.  We make these tutorials in-house and can cater the tutorial to exactly how they will need to use the tool.  We also provide classroom coaching and our coach goes into classrooms and works directly with students and the teacher throughout the year to help overcome any major obstacles.  We find in-the-moment classroom coaching to be the most helpful in our other projects and plan to continue to do that in this project.  

We certainly don’t want to lose the content and only promote technology!  We see AR as a tool for STEM subjects because of the way the technology is created as well as what it can afford as a teaching tool.  For example, VR can let a student see an exploded view of an eyeball in a different way than a 2D picture on a page.  Adding multidimensional views, the ability to see around and inside objects, and the ability to morph objects ideally will all deepen science content understanding.  In addition, because the students create VR to go along with innovative projects they hit on all of the NGSS practices throughout the year.  

Our core Advisory Board has representation from several fields and members are part of the team’s Augmented Reality NSF planning and implementation work. These include but are not limited to higher ed (UCONN Stamford Digital Media), government (CT Office of Film and Television) and industry (IBM). UCONN Stamford is a formal partner on the project and we also have ex-officio advisors from the AR/VR sector in Connecticut. Each of these formal and informal advisors help us shape the knowledge and skill focus areas in alignment with emerging workforce and economic development needs. 

We are still early in the project but already have anticipated some of the challenges.  One challenge is that there is not as much high quality AR content readily available.  As the technology is still quite new for use in the classroom we are not able to find as much already made AR content connected to high school science that truly deepens student understanding and isn’t just AR for fun.  We are tackling that by designing some of our own AR apps with our grant partner at a University and university students learning AR are making apps based on the science content.   

Thanks for watching!  We'd be happy to connect.

For the first phase of the project we’re using a “drag-and-drop” platform called Zapworks. We expect as the project scales we will look to UNITY to take AR to the next level. Zapworks also has a more complex authoring environment that we expect could be a bridge to something like UNITY for more advanced teams and projects.  Hope that helps!

We agree.  The possibilities seem endless right now and we can't wait to see what the next two years holds as technology continues to develop.