Junior high students enter a virtual reality world in the lab

At Columbia Falls Junior High last week, eighth-graders were examining butterflies, evaluating the design of houses, and observing the structure of the human heart.

With virtual reality technology from zSpace, students in a computer lab have the opportunity to interact with on-screen objects and explore concepts too complex, dangerous, or expensive for traditional science labs. Last November, the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund and Glacier Bank donated a combined total of $50,000 to get the zSpace curriculum up and running.

The zSpace technology is for grades K-12 and includes labs for genetics, history, physics, anatomy, chemistry, and much more. Younger students can engage in geology labs or look at animals close-up.

It works via high-tech glasses, stylus pens, and sensors that tracking the viewing angle of the user. With the pen, users can drag objects around the computer screen, pull them close to their faces, or rotate them any direction.

Although it was only their third time using the machines, the junior high students are already becoming experts. They easily demonstrated the technology to visitors from Weyerhaeuser and the school board.

“It takes a little while for the kids to learn to manipulate it, but when they get the dexterity they’re ready for the labs,” science teacher Tom Berquist noted.

Berquist also said that the zSpace technology provides lab opportunities that other software can’t, especially when the students are learning about astronomy and physics.

“For what they’re doing with gravity, we don’t have any other software to duplicate this,” Berquist remarked.

The representatives from Weyerhaeuser were impressed, too.

“You can’t really understand it until you sit down and look at it,” Colleen Turner, the area finance and planning manager for Weyerhaeuser, said. “I know what 3-D is like, and that’s something more.”

Weyerhaeuser donated $40,000 to get zSpace for the schools.

Tom Ray, the Montana resources team leader of Weyerhaeuser, said it was an easy decision to invest in zSpace. One of the areas of focus for the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund, he explained, is education and youth development.

“When you think about the cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technology, this was really a great opportunity for Weyerhaeuser to bring it to the community,” he noted.

Mark Johnson of Glacier Bank was amazed at the opportunities zSpace opens for student labs.

“It is a phenomenal thing. I was not prepared to be that impressed,” Johnson said.

He said that to Glacier Bank, investing in zSpace was a “no-brainer.”

“We are a community bank, and we don’t just provide financial services but community service, and schools are a big part of the community,” Johnson noted.

Most importantly, the students like zSpace.

“It’s better than sitting in class,” said Emily Berry.

Rhys Sharpton agreed.

“It seems really real and you can resize stuff and see how (things) work,” Sharpton said. “You wouldn’t be able to look at a butterfly really big in real life.”

Junior high principal Dave Wick hopes to eventually use the technology for art classes, and in extended studies for students’ individual projects. When more teachers are trained and familiarized with the system, Columbia Falls elementary and high schools will also start using the zSpace platform.