McGraw Hill and Verizon Add New Free AR/VR App Lesson Plans for K–12 Teachers

  • By Kate Lucariello
  • 09/11/23

K–12 teachers across the United States looking to incorporate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) into their classrooms can take advantage of a partnership between McGraw Hill and Verizon, who created the Verizon Innovative Learning HQ and have recently added new lessons to its repository.

The free mobile AR app was launched in 2022 and offers over 350 standards-aligned lessons using immersive and interactive technology to give students new ways to learn content. The app is available at the App Store or Google Play to download to any Apple or Android tablet or smartphone.

Some of the lesson plans available on the app include the Quadratic Functions math course, for grade levels 9–12, which uses a fireworks display to teach students quadratic functions in one to two class periods using AR on a smartphone. A lesson plan and student worksheet are available. Learn more here.

In a history lesson plan for grades 6–8, students can learn about the Boston Massacre during colonial times. They can view four different and conflicting eyewitness accounts and come to understand and analyze the positions of both the colonists and the British. This AR lesson is also available via smartphone.

Another available course, called The Human Eye, allows students to virtually dissect a human eye and understand how it works.

To watch videos of educators using AR in the classroom, visit this TimePod Adventures page, with teachers and students talking about their experience.

Teachers, administrators, and parents can go to the Verizon Innovative Learning HQ page to sign up for a free account and peruse the hundreds of lesson plans available. All content is free to download and use. Professional development resources are also available free of charge.

According to Verizon, these free resources are part of the "Citizen Verizon initiative, whereby Verizon strives to move the world forward for all people, with a goal to invest $3 billion by 2025 in areas such as digital inclusion, climate protection and human prosperity. Verizon does not profit from this or any of its other corporate social responsibility programs."

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

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