Dalton News

World Building in Dalton’s HS Virtual Reality Class

This year, high school students built virtual reality environments with the online software, A-Frame. Using this web-based VR platform, students learn and experience world-building and can collaborate remotely with peers and their teacher.
By implementing JavaScript and HTML to bring their worlds and interactions to life, students viewed the world as though they had on VR lenses. Towards the end of Trimester 1, pairs of students created their own VR experiences. One pair chose to dive into animation and 3D models to build a swamp—complete with water animations and lilypads! Another pair built a virtual solar system—complete with shooting stars and the ability to view all of the planets. Another pair built a virtual version of a snake! 

In Trimester 2, students could work solo or in a group on a trimester-long project. Using Unity and Oculus Go headsets, with support from New Lab, students with time management in mind, are keeping an updated portfolio to track their experience, storyboarding, and, finally, completing an executable VR project. Three groups are working on a swordfight/saber game experience, a parkour jungle experience (building off the swamp project from last trimester), and Rocket League in virtual reality. 

Students have spent the trimester considering their users’ engagement while being mindful of what the world looks like from every angle. For students, it's been fun to view the worlds that they have created and to immerse themselves in realities that they crafted.

Story submitted by Computer Science and Engineering Teacher Danah Screen
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