Virtual exhibit becomes education tool for local schools

The exhibit debuted in April of 2019 at the ACCelerate Festival at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. When we initially wanted to create this, it was with the goal of creating a physical exhibit that would be shown somewhere. The plan of engaging with students is always in the background for us because the application area is often the classroom. So we're really always working on take these tools and experiences and make them something that can actually be applied in a curriculum by a teacher at varying levels. Can you think of another reason why the Germans would be better at tunnel building than the French? When I first came here to Blacksburg High School one of the things I was looking for was being able to work and build on those connections between the high school and university. They reached out to me and said, Hey, we've got this opportunity here with this virtual reality display about World War 1. Looking at the display, learning about Vauquois allows us to kind of see two things. First of all, it allows us to see how technology is changing and impacting war. And the second thing is to do something interesting that has to do with technology today, like the virtual reality components. And using 3D to 3D print things to give students an experience, not just something that's in a textbook or on a flat screen on a video. They are surprised to learn about the tunneling and the fact that people lived underground and even fought underground in some cases, they ask some good questions like, you know, did they have fresh air and did they ventilate? Things like that. And we're able to say what did you see the piping in the walls? They're like, yeah, I was wondering what that was. And so it's really neat to see them ask questions and be able to recall things they saw to kind of bring story together. This is sort of like the first step towards figuring out how can we bring this experience to students. Being at a land-grant institution like this, and having an open library where people can come and access resources including the researchers themselves and the material that they create is invaluable. I want to see what we do actually have an impact.