Year 10 Geography: Environmental Change and Forest Management (ForestVR)

Forests are of enormous importance to all species on earth. They provide shelter, food, and other resources. They help to clean our water and protect our soils. They are the guardians of the climate and are economically important. They provide us with inspiration and enjoyment. We need forests.

ForestLearning has developed this unit in conjunction with the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria (GTAV) to assist geography teachers to explore Australian forests using innovative spatial and virtual reality technologies including ForestVR^TM (forestlearning.edu.au/forestvr).

Although not intended as a replacement for actual on-ground fieldwork, ForestVR virtual excursions can offer unique and exciting immersive learning experiences for students and can be a particularly powerful online learning tool to “…enhance a learner’s knowledge of spatial concepts” (Southgate, 2020).

ForestLearning’s ForestVR Toolkit for Schools provides 3600 video experiences and 360⁰ photo tours of some of the major productive forest types of Australia. It also explores timber manufacturing processes as well as the final uses of renewable forest products in buildings, flooring and everyday items like paper and cardboard. The accessibility of 360⁰ cameras and 3600 images opens many new opportunities in this field, particularly for investigating forest environments and management.

CLICK HERE to head to the ForestLearning website to access the full range of teacher and student resources, including instructions on how to use the ForestVR app. 

N.B. – You will need to register for a free ForestLearning account in order to access these (and the full range of) learning resources.