Virtual Reality has evolved from being a gaming only technology to an innovative, educational tool. Teachers and parents alike are already experiencing the wonderful potentials that virtual reality poses for education. Already, there are various educational VR games available on platforms like the HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and the Oculus Rift.
Virtual Reality makes learning fun as children can become completely immersed and engaged in virtual worlds where they have the opportunity to interact first hand with a variety of subjects and have fun while they do it! Imagine how much fun children could have taking a virtual tour of Egypt where they visit the pyramids and see the Sphinx up close for themselves, all from the comfort of your living room or classroom. Or playing a fun maths game where they move virtual objects directly with their hands and add the objects together. All these and more are now possible with Virtual Reality.
We’ve searched far and wide and compiled a list of the Best Educational Virtual Reality Games that are perfect to keep children engaged while learning.
1. Fantastic Contraption
Fantastic Contraption is an innovative game where children can use their hands to create intricate contraptions and machines to navigate obstacles and solve puzzles. The machines are built by assembling colorful parts. After assembling your contraption, you can test it and see if it will perform as it intended. If the machine doesn’t work, you can start over again or modify your contraption until you solve the puzzle.
Therefore Fantastic Contraption is a perfect game for improving problem solving skills, think creatively and increase dexterity. It is also an exciting way of introducing children to engineering in a way that isn’t intimidating or difficult to understand, making this an excellent tool for any classroom. They will be able to deal with gears, wheels, axles and other mechanical components, all working together. Therefore if you want to inspire the next generation of talented engineers, you should encourage them to play Fantastic Contraption. Available to install from the Steam Store.
2. Tilt Brush
Tilt Brush is an extremely cool and unique virtual painting app made by Google that allows children to use their unlimited creativity to paint away without getting their clothes and hands (and your carpets!) stained. There are a large variety of virtual palettes, brushes, paint colours and tools at their disposal to allow them to create almost anything they want with their hands. Tilt Brush also allows artworks to be shared via animated gifs or large masterpieces with friends and family. Consequently, this is good as children can have fun sharing artworks and competing against each other for the best artwork.
Available to install on Steam – Art teachers can use this app in the classroom to teach children more about painting in a fun, innovative and creative way that improves dexterity and teaches them about scale, shapes and colours. Additionally, this is also a fantastic game for any Virtual Reality Party, where children can take turns to paint whatever they can imagine and show it to their friends.
3. VR Lessons by ThingLink
VR Lessons by ThingLink is a Virtual Reality app designed specifically for primary school children. It has a collection of interactive lessons on topics like languages, science, geography, art and more. With the app, children can go on virtual tours of various places all around the world, exploring a fully interactive 360 degree environment with photos, videos and education information.
As a result, these lessons allow children to experience the world that has never before been so easily at their reach and readily available as an educational tool. Parents and teachers can easily take their children on a tour of the world, teaching them about ancient history, other cultures and geographical landscapes without ever stepping foot on a bus or plane.
4. Job Simulator
As the name suggests, Job Simulator is a Virtual Reality experience that lets children work at any one of four jobs. They can be office workers, car mechanics, convenience store clerks and gourmet chefs. A robot will explain the tasks to be completed, and you can start working. The game is extremely entertaining and comes up with funny scenarios that you have to handle in order to progress, such as cooking a burger for a customer in a restaurant by turning the oven on, toasting a bun, cooking the burger and assembling it on to a plate.
In addition to being available on Playstation VR it can also be found on the Steam Store – Job Simulator is a great way of giving children a very basic and early introduction in to how adult jobs are carried out and allowing them to make mistakes and try again without it feel punishing. Also Job Simulator is a great Virtual Reality game for improving dexterity and problem solving skills in children. It may also help make them appreciate their parents and their teachers more and could help to instill a good work ethic. We all know how much children love pretending to be adults, so they will have fun playing this game and learn while they play.
5. DiscoveryNow
DiscoveryNow is a Virtual Reality initiative by DiscoveryEducation that enables teachers and parents to take learning to a whole new level and take children on educational Virtual Field Trips to iconic locations all around the world. Entire classrooms of children can tour the NASA Flight Center to learn about space, visit farms and learn more about agriculture and many other places.
Furthermore, these experiences focus on some less typical educational topics but still extremely important to child development. Including topics such as learning about how the world around us is evolving and visiting Costa Rica’s Rainforests to learn about conservation. In addition, more and more virtual reality trips are released every month providing children with a boundless array of adventure and offering parents and teachers an inexpensive way of providing an engaging learning experience. Simply pair with a smartphone and a mobile Virtual Reality headset such as a Samsung Gear VR and download the DiscoverNow app.
6. The Lab
Available to download for free on the Steam Store – The Lab is a collection of short mini-games and Virtual Reality experiences that are great for children. It was designed to introduce them to Virtual Reality in a way that isn’t at all intimidating. Also in this collection, children get to play as scientists in a giant laboratory and experiment with various different things. Including repairing robots, exploring the universe, firing a bow and arrow and play with a small robotic dog.
Because of the wide variety of different experiences at their disposal, this Virtual Reality experience is a great tool for improving problem solving skills, dexterity and depth perception among other things. Highly recommended for a basic introduction in to Virtual Reality with no cost!
7. VR The Diner Duo
One of the few co-operative Virtual Reality games available for children, The Diner Duo can be found on the Steam Store. In this game, one child wears the Virtual Reality headset and plays as a cook, while the other uses a mouse and keyboard at a computer to play as a waiter. The player at the computer takes orders and serves food to the patrons, while the chef cooks and prepares the food. As the game progresses, the number of guests increases, and the orders become more complex. The longer it takes to get food ready, the more the guests will leave in annoyance until eventually the game ends after three guests leave.
As a result The Diner Duo is perfect for Virtual Reality and Gaming Parties as other children can watch as two players play the game and take it in turns to work as a team. In addition the children can compete and try to beat the high score of other teams. Consequently this game will teach children about time management, working as a team and multitasking.
8. Virry
Virry is an extremely unique educational wildlife Virtual Reality app for Playstation VR and Oculus Rift that allows children to experience wildlife up close and personal. Most impressively this app uses cameras that stream live video from the LEWA Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya.
This allows children to get up close and feel like they are interacting with real life wild animals without ever having to embark on a safari trip. Virry is a perfect way of teaching children more about wild animals in their natural habitat and about important conservancy projects.
Conclusion
In conclusion, they say images are more powerful than words. But Virtual Reality is far more immersive than video, images or any other form of media before it. There is nothing like it, and there are no words to explain it. Therefore if you are a teacher or parent you need to experience it personally to understand what the hype is all about and experience the potential education values to children.
Kindly fill in our booking form if you would like to book any of the Virtual Reality games above as a teaching tool for your classroom, Virtual Reality teacher training or for a unique and exciting party.