"Google Gets real"

Story by Danny Rhoad

​Students were able to turn all the way around and see everything around them. It’s like a virtual reality!
 
“It was fun and very interesting,” Jenna Hohne, seventh grade, said. Google Expeditions came to Clay and gave all the students a chance to try it.
 
Google Expeditions is a new device that is still being worked on. Since it has not been released to the public, they came to Clay to let students and teachers to test it out. They wanted some feedback from us, so we gave them some tips to improve on it.
 
Google Expeditions is very simple. It involves something called Google Cardboard, which is Google’s own virtual reality goggles.
 
“It was like a box with a slot for your phone, and the phone was split into two screens. Then there was lenses that you would look through,” Mia Anderson, seventh grade, said.
 
So they are very simple and easy to use. You do have to download the app and get the Cardboard device if you want it -- but it is very inexpensive.
 
Students could go to many places with the Google Expeditions. Hohne went to the Taj Mahal, and Anderson went underwater into a shark tank.
 
“I thought it was really cool because I didn't expect it to be that real,” Hohne said.
 
I also had a chance to try out the Google Expeditions. It was a very cool experience. You would hold the Cardboard device up to your eyes, and you would be in whole another place! If you looked one way you would actually be moving your own viewpoint in the virtual reality.
 
I got to travel to many places, too. I went to the Taj Mahal, underwater, and the Great Wall of China. These places are very unique and wonderful. It felt like you are actually there walking around in that location. Overall, it was a great experience.
 
Google Expeditions also helps teachers. It helps the kids learn by getting a visual of what they are learning about in class.
 
Google Expeditions does have a great purpose and does help many students and teachers. Students did enjoy it and have fun.
 
“It’s fun because it’s different than regular class work,” Anderson said. 
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Seventh grade students got to enjoy Google Cardboard during electives and social studies.