Each week, we have an awesome crew of makers that show up to share their projects.
Last week was no exception. Included among last week’s guests was Matthew L Faerber; you can see his segment in the video above, starting at minute 10:56!
Matthew directs the The Visual World Investigate Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
Here’s a bit about the Lab:
Directed by Matthew Faerber and located in Raleigh, North Carolina in the new Nature Research Center (a part of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences) the Visual World Investigate Lab (aka VisLab) is highly experimental and is not easily defined. It is a Maker Space, it is public outreach tool, it is a class room for children and teachers, it is free, it is visited by about 2,000 people a month, and it is open every day. It teaches science using scientific visualization techniques such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and GIS. The VisLab encourages kids to learn how to code and build with impromptu electronics demonstrations and classes. It boasts many different type of software and hardware technologies such as augmented reality, GIS, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, robotics, 3D modeling, and 3D printing. Its’ formal goal is to teach science and how science is done.
Matthew shared his epic project, DIY 3D Printed Virtual/Augmented Reality Headsets, which he uses to educate about Climate Change. He also had some nice words to say about our site. Thanks, Matthew!
Here’s more about the project:
Matthew had been wanting to teach a class on Climate Change for long time, but he knew that the challenge would be keeping middle and high school kids engaged and interested. He didn’t want it to just be another class that they had to take, but an experience that they would remember and learn from. His answer was to create headsets that utilize both augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. Because of the headsets he doesn’t have to just show the students a photo of the arctic, he can virtually take them there, and they can look all around. Instead of showing a map in Power Point he can project a 3D model of the Earth on their table tops, and they can pick it up. These techniques are extremely novel and keep the students interested in the topic.