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Bringing VR into the classroom

People around the world have the ability to know what to say in a situation with the police. However, students with Autism don’t have the same social skills that we do to know how to react in those encounters. Being confronted by a police officer is something that brings a lot of stress to someone and if you are on the autism spectrum, that can be especially troubling to answer questions or respond to directions. Floreo, an educational virtual reality program for students with autism, offers seven different lessons that students can experience not through a VR headset. Our technology today has reached a breaking point in changing kids with special needs lives for the better. It also provides a feeling of safety for their parents knowing that their child is safe walking down the street. Some of the VR lessons focus on social skills and other focus on more serious situations like police interaction simulations.  Floreo stated that, “it gives students an opportunity to practice and prob
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10 more years...

Climate change and the heating of our environment has become a very frightening topic but there is more. Not only is our environment heating up, the oceans are too. According to Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University and a lead author of the report, “The oceans and ice are in trouble, so we’re all in trouble”.  Due to the climate change occurring, it is causing oceans to be warmer and more acidic which is hurting the marine life. The IPCC has been studying the risks of climate change ( See here ) and have concluded that: “Marine heat waves will become 20 to 50 times more frequent” which is going to cause the number of animals in the ocean to drop nearly 15%. Although it seems like there is nothing we can do, we still have time to save our planet. There are some things that are unavoidable at this point, but if we reduce our use of greenhouse gases, there is a chance. Due to the carbon dioxide being released, an excessive amount of it is being trapped in ou

Family History Blog Post

Asking my parents about how I got my name always brings a bit of emotion to them. When picking out names, they of course had their whole list of classic girl names: Emma, Grace, or Lily and some out there ones as well: Margo, Ryann, and Tate, but they loved that Jenna because it meant “little bird”. This stood out to them because of my last name, Birdsell. After hearing Jenna, my parents went to see my mom’s mom and told her they liked the name Jenna. She immediately said yes and had her heart set on her second grand daughter being named Jenna. Shortly after that, my grandma passed away and left my family in shock, sadness, and sorrow. My parents knew that she would approve of the name and wanted to always be reminded of my mom’s mom when they said Jenna. Additionally, my middle name is Betty which many people make fun of or laugh at. But to me this is the most important part about me because that was my grandma’s name. Being named after my grandma makes me feel very honored because I