Thursday, May 2, 2019 | The Hydrous + Lenovo VR Workshop at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School | by Amber Zertuche, IGNITE Regional Director | Photos by Lenovo
On May 2nd, a group of 6th - 8th grade girls at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School were honored to welcome volunteers from Lenovo and The Hydrous for a panel discussion and Virtual Reality Workshop. The girls started the event by eating food and talking to the volunteers. They then downloaded Google Earth on their cell phones and used them with Google Cardboards to explore their world virtually and become familiar with the technology.
They then put on the VR Headsets and experienced The Hydrous, a virtual ocean world that inspires virtual travelers with the beauty, vastness, and characters of our oceans.
After their virtual dive with The Hydrous, they took off their headsets and their eyes were wide with curiosity and asked questions. The laughter and discussion could be heard down the hall!
After the workshop, 3 women in STEM panelists shared their story of obstacles they overcame and what they do for their job and why they love it.
The girls were not only excited to have guests on campus, but were moved and inspired by the stories of the panelists and got to experience how beautiful and wonderful our ocean is and why its so important to protect it. They got to experience the things they don't see - the intricate balance that happens below the waves.
Special thanks to Erika Woolsey, CEO of The Hydrous for facilitating the workshop, bringing Google Cardboard VR viewers for students to keep, and telling your story to the girls and answering their questions. Thank you to Justin Eure and Gavin O'Hara with Lenovo for traveling to San Francisco to film this special day and donating 2 VR headsets. Thank you to Lenovo for providing food for the girls - what a special treat! Thank you to Andrea Contreras, Earth Science Student at Stanford, and Ryan Barner, Software Engineer at Hackbright for telling your story to girls on the panel. Thank you to Dave Greenberg for helping set up and helping to facilitate the workshop.
Many thanks to Lenovo for capturing the inspiration of the day with this video!
Many thanks to the great team at Lenovo and The Hydrous for making this workshop such a success!