Pioneer Elementary School teachers use virtual reality

Students at Pioneer Crossing Elementary School are going to the Amazon rainforest, Philadelphia, and even to Egypt without leaving their school building. It's all thanks: to new, virtual reality technology Manor ISD teachers are embracing.

Teachers are moving away from the chalkboards and whiteboards and trying to engage kids more and more.

Trenity Phillips and her second grade after school class is taking a trip to Joplin, Missouri to look at tornado damage.

Thanks to Silicon Valley technology called Nearpod, students can see what the teacher is talking about right before their very eyes.

“Nearpod is fairly new to me, but the kids are enjoying it, they’re loving it and they're just running with it,” Erik Hauck, teacher, said.

Manor ISD bought the system for their classrooms a while ago, but many teachers are just now using the program. Hauck is teaching his students about weather.

“The students really got to see what the disaster was like in Joplin, Missouri. We see what it's like on the news and on TV and everything but now it's in the students' hands,” Hauck said.

Teachers are using the tool for both curriculum and just good clean fun.

“Going places you've never been, It's kind of like a field trip,” Cierrah Doyle, student, said.

From rainforests, to the tops of volcanoes, and all the way to countries in Africa, the options are limitless.

“The pyramids in Egypt…I’ve never been there before, it's kind of fun it's very fun,” Doyle said.

Teachers say in a world where kids are adapting to technology quicker and quicker, this was a good way to utilize it all in the name of learning.

“Technology is moving faster than we are so in order for even our pre-school kids or kindergarten students they need to embrace the technology to be ready for what's in the future,” Hauck said.