This week, our students were giving an experience that we have not been previously been able to provide in our Team, an opportunity to explore Virtual Reality within our Hub!

Some information about the Virtual Reality experience from the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

Blake NZ VR Video

NZ-VR takes two travelling educators to schools across Northland and Auckland with a class-set of virtual reality headsets to deliver an engaging, inspiring and educational one-hour session to classes on environmental sustainability with a focus on oceans.

Wearing a VR headset, students experience a number of underwater experiences through 360˚ videos that compare and contrast different marine environments. They learn about what causes ocean damage and what actions can be taken to protect the marine environment.

Students come away from the session with practical actions they can take to help protect the environment and a much deeper sense and understanding of kaitiakitanga.

Here's what our students had to say:

Elise: I really enjoyed this experience because it was awesome to see some of New Zealand's best Maritime habitats and the wildlife. It also made a much bigger impact when I saw it through VR.

Kaira: Something I really enjoyed in the VR session was getting to learn more about the underwater sea life, also getting to see all these creatures in 3D and it actually feeling real. One more thing I enjoyed was finding ways to help the environment with overfishing and also with pollution.

Elaine: I really enjoyed viewing different points of view like under the sea and in the sky. I also enjoyed the different variety of places and of course the animals there! It was also quite fascinating switching through the unprotected areas and the protected areas, I surprisingly found learning about the waterways and what we can do to protect these areas was also REALLY interesting. If I was allowed to do this again I would love to experience this again!

Laura: I really enjoyed the experience of underwater virtual reality. I found it different when the Stingray came up and gave you a kiss. I also really enjoyed looking at the different types of seaweed and the different types of fish and the different sea animals. I found it really hard not to reach forward and try to touch the sea animals or the plants. One thing that I did not enjoy as much was looking at the polluted water areas.  Overall I really enjoyed this experience.

Hayley: I really enjoyed this experience because I have only tried VR once and I loved seeing all the animals but I didn't like how some people over fish and dump rubbish and plastic in our ocean. I recommend trying VR if you get a chance to.I think that we should have some more protective parts in New Zealand.

Justin: I liked that it was VR because I only did VR once. I liked seeing all the animals living a good life and I liked that we got to see the divers and how clean the water was and how polluted some waters were because the polluted waters looked like they were radioactive.

Cooper: I have really enjoyed doing VR. It was so fun. It was a bit sad because there were some very bad water parts in the sea and not much fish. But there were some lovely parts in the sea like fish and seaweed.

Alisina: What I really enjoyed in the VR was the stingrays and the cute little penguin because I never saw animals in VR. I also liked the reef and the protected area and the unprotected area.

Emily T: It was so thrilling to see under the water and the yellow-eyed penguins! I also really enjoyed seeing the stingrays and the hump-back whales, it was AMAZING to watch and experience!

Louise: I have really enjoyed this experience and learning the difference between polluted water and unpolluted water. One thing that I enjoyed the most was seeing the different environments and sea creatures.

Kamyar: Thank you for preparing this for us. It was a really fun experience, and I got to learn more about the ocean and sea life.It was really enjoyable to see the good water and the bad water, and it was really cool to see the sea animals.

Marcus: I had enjoyed the Blake Trust very much. What I had enjoyed the most was the penguins and using the VR. It was cool getting to learn through the VR instead of listening to someone talk.

Laisa: I really enjoyed looking at all the different marine creatures and protected areas,As well as the thrilling animals right next to us! Personally, I liked the penguin and stingray experiences, because the stingrays were these HUGE creatures around us! [one even gave us a kiss] The penguin part was INCREDIBLE! The penguins were so cute! I loved that one so much! I tried to touch one, but I ended up touching the person next to me- which was pretty funny (it was my friend!) Overall this was an entertaining, pleasurable experience!

Tory: I really enjoyed using virtual reality. It was really cool looking under water at the fishes, sea animals and other stuff. I learned lots of different things, even about seaweed. It was cool how different the protected ocean vs the unprotected ocean is.

Lila: I enjoyed the VR because it was interesting and fun because we got to learn about the oceans and the reef. Also, I enjoyed learning about the sea life and how we have to protect them and that we should reuse rubbish and not throw them into the ocean or leave the rubbish behind.

Grace O: I absolutely loved this experience! Every direction, you could see a lot of beautiful destinations. I loved the yellow eyed penguins, they were so adorable.

We also got to compare the difference between protected oceans, and unprotected areas. The protected areas had clear water, animals, seaweed, and life everywhere. However, the unprotected areas had murky green water, lots of urchins, but not a lot of sea life. This really motivated me to help our environment, so that we don't get polluted waterways. I really enjoyed this experience, and I would love to do this again.