On Tuesday, May 7, 2019, students at Jakeman All Grade School in Trout River took turns touring the Geopark region with the help of Cabox’s Drifting Apart Virtual Reality program.   Geopark Chairperson Paul Wylezol took advantage of the beautiful weather to visit the community located just west of the Tablelands Ophiolite Massif in Gros Morne National Park.

Teacher Kayla Brake arranged the visit, which included the participation of kindergarten and grades 1-6 and 9.

The VR station, which is normally located at Saltbox Restaurant and Geopark Information Center in Benoit’s Cove on the south shore of the Bay of Islands, was set up in the school’s science lab, an appropriate place for a technology based in computer science.

The goal of the Cabox VR program is to inspire students, residents and tourists with spectacular views of the landscapes of Western Newfoundland and to increase awareness of new trends in education, technology and tourism promotion.

As usual, the kids were taken aback by how real the virtual reality content is, particularly when “standing” on the edge of a mountain or below a towering waterfalls.  A typical comment was “that’s sick!”, which in today’s lingo seems to mean a combination of “cool!” and “unreal!”

Even school principal Jillian Cross and some of the teachers gave it a try, but this “sick” leave didn’t require time off from school!

Hopefully the students will remember the VR experience as they mature, and consider both tourism and computer generated technologies as career options available to them in the future.

Throughout the summer of 2019, Cabox will be using its new state of the art Insta360 Pro VR camera to capture more 3D videos of the Geopark region, and hope to return to the school again next year to share the experiences.  Stay tuned ….