Utopia 360°: 4D+ Augmented and Virtual Reality STEM Bundles

Utopia 360° may be a company that provides a range of video game and increased reality experiences.  In terms of K-12 STEM education, they presently have 3 bundles and apps: house Exploration, archosaurian reptile expertise, and Animal menagerie.  All of those area unit meant to assist students explore content through each increased and video game. every bundle comes with a telephone receiver and cards.  These cards area unit then accustomed trigger the augmented/virtual reality expertise. 
For this specific review, I had the chance to check out the house Exploration bundle, that is meant to let students explore content associated with the planets, the scheme, house missions, and content on these lines.

 Before jumping into the review, here’s a short introductory video from the Utopia 360° team.



The basic plan is that students will use their phone or pill (with the free house Exploration app installed) to scan the enclosed cards and learn additional regarding the content.

For the archosaurian reptile and house bundles, students hold their device over a card, and area unit bestowed with data this factor (e.g., the scheme, a maniraptor, etc.).  Students will move with the increased reality model, by turning it and zooming in/out, yet as scan data regarding no matter they’re gazing.  Students can even take photos or videos of what they’re exploring, and within the case of the satellite rover, they'll even drive it round the surface of the virtual moon.   

The Animal menagerie bundle expands on this somewhat by conjointly giving students instruction within the alphabet, and providing polyglot support. whereas I wasn’t ready to review that specific bundle, the house Exploration bundle failed to embrace any similar tutorial content.  Instead, it additional comes across as associate augmented/virtual reality reference book.  In alternative words, it’s nice for exploring content, however educationally, it doesn’t supply a lot of on the far side that.



The video game aspect of the house Exploration bundle is supposed to permit students to explore the International artificial satellite and also the the scheme. you'll be able to placed on the enclosed telephone receiver and take a visit through these totally different environments.  

Unfortunately, throughout my very own testing, yet because the testing of my colleagues and students, we tend to were ne'er ready to get the show to operate utterly properly, even once adjusting the focal points on the telephone receiver multiple times.  

I have used several alternative VR headsets with success, and with the Utopia telephone receiver, we tend to were ne'er ready to get the pictures to align exactly.  It virtually really reminded me of these recent sensing element pictures, wherever if you relaxed your eyes in only the correct means, you'd be ready to see things as they were meant, however as shortly as you looked elsewhere, or shifted your head, it absolutely was gone, and you were left with a small headache. we tend to tested with multiple devices on the telephone receiver, and continuously saw this same issue.

In addition to exploring the International artificial satellite and also the scheme, you'll be able to conjointly use the telephone receiver to seem at the enclosed cards, however we tend to encountered constant problems here as mentioned on top of.  


In addition to the said problems, i used to be conjointly sad to visualize that there's completely no NGSS standard-alignment or information support for these bundles.  For a product that promotes itself as being a part of a “STEM-based education series” - the particular room connections were utterly absent. except for the alphabet instruction enclosed within the menagerie bundle, there's no information support, no discussion queries, no room guides, etc.



On the positive aspect, the value purpose of those bundles is fairly cheap, particularly compared to alternative augmented/virtual reality room bundles. and also the increased reality element of the app worked improbably well, and was definitely fun and interesting.  

Overall, I see this being additional helpful as a fun toy to induce students inquisitive about house, or animals, or dinosaurs, and fewer useful as a classroom/educational resource.  

It might be helpful for college students World Health Organization have an interest in learning additional regarding these topics, however with the whole lack of information connections, support resources, NGSS-aligned materials, etc., it’s onerous on behalf of me to advocate this as one thing that would be wide adopted during a room setting.  

Additionally, the problems we tend to saw with the video game means although these resources did exist, there would still be those difficulties to deal with.  Plus, the enclosed manual enclosed data that was either incorrect or out of date associated with the app, that was frustrating to visualize.  

In short, the increased reality aspect of this expertise works well for exploring content, however outside of that, the Utopia 360° house Exploration Bundle doesn't seem to presently be a useful room resource.  If everything worked for sure, and also the team had clearly placed a stress on developing one thing that was aligned with teacher and college wants, i believe it might be valuable. however because it stands currently, it solely has potential for being useful at some purpose within the future.

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