Students captivated by latest dynamic tech tool
Acutting edge tool created by zSpace, a technology firm in Sunnyvale, which features a mixed reality concept through a desktop computer, amazed students and faculty at De Anza Magnet School with its mobile lab Tuesday.
The zSpace 300 combines virtual reality with augmented reality to provide 3-D views of multiple curriculum content from anatomy to zoology to automotive mechanics and additional disciplines.
It is on its first full year tour of Southern California schools noted David Cisneros, regional sales director and former principal in the Redlands Unified School District.
The zSpace 300 combines a computer with a stylus and tracking (3-D) eyewear so users can pull models of a beating human heart or a feeding monarch butterfly off the flat careen and gain lateral and even interior views.
Beginning with technology for the Department of Defense 10 years ago, zSpace then built on that foundation for academic use so now 400 public schools and colleges can use the technology instead of a conventional lab by simulating lab experiments and improve upon those investigations.
“We’re working to build up the tech infrastructure helping students supplement class and textbook studies so teachers now think of this as a supply closet and do all the things they used to do in a lab, I can now do virtually with the 3-D computer system,” said Cisneros. “This makes difficult abstract concepts so much clearer, students may think of a career in STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) they never considered before.”
Currently teaching about heart functions Jenny Martin, noted her student are busy dissecting a sheep’s heart to identify the chambers and other component parts.
“I think the technology is exciting because some students want to be physicians and they’ll see this in the operating room every day,” she said.
Her student, Valeria Ibarra remarked the zSpace mixed reality was “cool” and helped further illustrate how the heart functions.
“It’s a lot easier to see into the heart and takes less time to learn,” she said.
Added classmate Calypso Roncal-Bonfils, “It was awesome, better than dissection, because the technology let’s you see inside the heart without getting your hands all messy.”
Arevalo Silva, fourth grade teacher, remarked she was amazed at the technology so that students at an early age comprehend the heart’s relationship with other vital organs.
“It introduces the concept of robotic surgery, so students can be a part of a simulated surgery,” she said. “This is a tremendous learning tool to advance their understanding how things actually work.”
Principal Richard Sanchez noted school administration is always looking for innovative ways to teach.
“I give a lot of credit to our technology teacher who discovered zSpace for us and got the ball rolling,” he said.
One of the reasons for bringing this technology to the school was because of the advanced educational content embedded in the hardware and software, noted Ascension Reyes, technology resource teacher.
“We’re looking to acquire six zSpace computers in a lab for the school to share,” he said. “And because we compete for students’ attention with all the video games and virtual reality they already interact with at home, this is a good way for the school to leverage that with a similar level of tech at school.”