Cory Jensen

Jensen’s innovative teaching idea, “Promoting Growth With VR,” focuses on helping teachers and students improve in their current and future professions. With the Voya grant, the school will purchase 360-degree cameras and virtual-reality (VR) headsets to record professionals in their workplaces. Students will then view in virtual reality what it is like to work as a machinist, a chef, a veterinarian or in other careers. The VR systems will also allow teachers to self-reflect by reviewing footage of themselves teaching in their classrooms. In the past, this has been done with a camera pointed at the teacher. But with a 360-degree camera, the teacher can review their entire class to measure engagement and participation of each student and to fine-tune their skills as educators. Additionally, utilizing apps like Google Expeditions and the new Google Light Field project, teachers can use VR to take their students across the world to view the Louvre, the Terracotta Warriors of China, or Gettysburg.