Experimenting with virtual reality technology can be fun. And one nonprofit has found it’s also a great way to get students to share information about climate change.
Cheung: “It is a very high-empathy storytelling medium that’s completely immersive.”
Linda Cheung is founder of the nonprofit Before It’s Too Late. Last semester, she helped students at Miami’s Cushman High School produce 360 degree films about local climate issues. If they use VR goggles to watch the films, viewers can look all around the space – as if they’re really there.
In the films, the students interview local community members about the potential of solar energy, the role of faith communities in climate action, and how climate change is causing gentrification in one nearby neighborhood.
Cheung: “It not only gives them exposure to these ideas and solutions that they never knew about before, but it also really exposes them to the people who work on these issues.”
Now Cheung plans to help the students become mentors who can teach other youth what they’ve learned.
Cheung: “I think the most powerful thing here is that they are seeing by practice how as kids and as individuals you can create impact.”
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.