The Region 4 Board of Education voted unanimously to accept the donation of $12,995 from UTC Aerospace System to the Region 4 School District to provide funding for the purchase of virtual reality equipment for classroom instruction in the high school.

“This donation is an incredible opportunity for our students,” said Valley Regional High School Principal Mike Barile.

The equipment, which has not been purchased yet, will consist of 32 virtual reality headsets with integrated wi-fi and a battery that will last throughout the school day.

According to the ClassVR website, the company that makes the headsets, “When students put on the ClassVR headset, they are transported to a futuristic ‘holodeck’ where they can use innovative head and hand gestures to navigate around. In front of them are a range of educational activities to select from, customized and delivered to the headset by the teacher, or from a pre-defined set of themes and activities.”

Barile explained that this new technology will be used in the science, tech-ed, math, and engineering classrooms. The equipment comes with accompanying lesson plans and content for STEM focused programs.

“The ability to use this kind of technology will allow our students the opportunity to visualize and understand instruction in a whole new, in-depth way,” said Barile. “They will be able to look at a system in the human body differently and see math in a three-dimensional way. They will even be able to take virtual trips to Mars, the Golden Gate Bridge, [and] the canals of Amsterdam and view it all in a 360-degree visual. This is a significant donation to our educational system and one we are extremely excited to use as soon as possible.”

The donation came about through Imran Munawar, a Deep River resident and member of the Deep River Board of Education who is also a UTC employee. He contacted Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Levy and conveyed to her the fact that UTC often provides donations to schools for equipment.

“It started out as a much smaller donation, but once we identified what we needed, it became a much more significant donation and one we are very grateful for,” said Levy. “Mr. Munawar is an instrumental and valued citizen who is continually invested in providing positive learning experiences for the children in our towns. His investment and dedication to future endeavors and careers for our students is greatly appreciated.”

Now that the BOE has approved the donation, Barile has the green light to move forward with the ordering and purchasing of the equipment. The plan is to get it as soon as possible and integrate into the high school learning curriculum in the second semester of school this year.

“We are all very excited,” said Barile. “Like anything else, we will have a first line of pioneer teachers who will learn the ins and outs of the equipment and they will teach the others. We are all going to be learning a lot about this and we can’t wait to bring this new educational tool to our students.”