Written by Dr. Shelli Rampold, ALEC Faculty

The Agriscience Metaverse Academy is a new, grant-funded professional development program led by University of Tennessee (UT) ALEC assistant professor, Dr. Tyler Granberry, along with partners Dr. Jamie Grieg and Dr. Taylor Ruth at UT, and Dr. Nathan Conner at the University of Nebraska.

The Academy was designed to teach middle- and high-school agriculture teachers how to use virtual reality (VR) technology in their classrooms. Through this program, 28 teachers across Tennessee and Nebraska will engage in a hands-on learning process focused on how to use VR to provide immersive agriscience experiences to their students, regardless of economic or physical limitations.

“Two of the biggest barriers to integrating new technology or teaching strategies in Ag Ed classrooms are cost and training,” said Granberry. “This grant allows us to help teachers overcome those barriers by allowing them access to VR equipment for their classes and training on how to make it an impactful addition to their curriculum.

Each teacher will be provided with a classroom set of 11 Meta Quest 2 VR headsets and a 360° camera with accessories to help build interactive and engaging classroom activities. Teachers will then participate in a five-day workshop through July and August 2024 in Tennessee and Nebraska, where participants will work together to create VR-based agriscience lesson plans. “We look forward to working with teachers to provide immersive experiences to their students,” said Granberry.

Acknowledgements: This work is supported by the Professional Development for Agricultural Literacy program, Grant no, 2023-67037-39937 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendation expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. government determination policy.