STEM Extended Reality Challenge

Engage with
real-world issues

The XR Challenge is a joint initiative between Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) and Lumination. The Challenge aims to foster an environment in which students can utilise immersive technology to engage with real-world issues, such as water sustainability, waste, or natural disasters. These real-world issues are directly related with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals initiative, supporting students to develop citizenship and community-minded thinking for a better society.

Learn More

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences

The XR Challenge helps students develop skills and confidence in extended reality technology, enabling them to be fully immersed within different areas of the Australian curriculum through creating their own engaging and purposeful Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality experiences and developing the skills they need to thrive in their future careers.

luminationvreducation

Key Outcomes

Lumination - VR Icon

Students develop skills in extended reality technologies, including hand held Virtual Reality, immersive Virtual Reality, coding, prototyping and 3D modelling, to explore real-world problems and create realistic, informed solutions;

Lumination - Teaching Icon

Teachers are provided with professional learning opportunities to feel empowered to bring immersive technologies into the classroom and use these technologies as an enabler for improved learning outcomes.

Lumination - Globe Icon

Students and teachers learn how to safely navigate a virtual learning environment to prepare them for a world that is increasingly expanding into the metaverse.

Develop 21st century skills

In 2021, this experience gave students from 11 participating schools the opportunity to put their design thinking skills into practice, working through the issue by empathising and searching for inspiration, thinking of innovative solutions in collaboration with each other, and then implementing and testing their ideas.

“I believe VR has to be the way of the future and it’s fantastic to see how engaged the students are in this incredible technology. Just seeing the pathways that can take them forward into their future, one that they may not have thought about previously.” Jade McMahon, Teacher at Our Lady of Sacred Heart College

The challenge enables students to develop 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, leadership, flexibility, future thinking, information literacy, media literacy, and technology literacy using a design thinking framework. Students also develop life-long skills through practicing their ability to evaluate, reflect on, redesign, and improve their solutions through structured and professionally-guided feedback loops with peers.