As the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif., welcomed students back for in-person learning, educators leaned on Epson technology to help enhance education and bring lessons into the spotlight. Leveraging multiple Epson document cameras throughout learning centers at the aquarium, education staff are able to provide hands-on demonstrations to bring engaging lessons to students and visitors of all ages.
“We were so excited to revamp our education programs and bring students back into the aquarium after a few years of virtual programming,” said Alicia Archer, education manager, Aquarium of the Pacific. “The Epson document cameras were teaching tools our staff incorporated into virtual learning. Now that we have launched our in-person programming, these cameras continue to enhance our education programs.”
One of the biggest benefits to leveraging document cameras in their education programs has been the ability to offer a shared learning experience to students. Rather than having to describe something, like a dissection, and then walk table to table to show students, a class can do it all together step-by-step. “We’ve been using the document cameras for our ‘Mysteries of the Deep’ class where we use gel layers on the document camera to simulate going deeper in the ocean. This application with the camera has helped us show how the energy of wavelengths differs, and colors change to bring the visualization to life,” said Archer.
To support a streamlined technology training program for educators, the aquarium is using the same presentation technology in several of its classrooms and learning centers. “While programs and lessons may differ, we are able to keep the tools the same, which really helps when we have new cohorts of educators — they don’t have to worry about learning a different system for every room they are working in,” continued Archer.
Epson document cameras offer easy setup, high quality images and easy connectivity for engaging students in any learning environment. Educators can capture and display books, 3D objects and experiments with remarkable clarity. Epson classroom document cameras support sharing content from an iPad or tablet, recording lessons for viewing at a later time and giving students a more interactive learning experience.
“We know education centers like the aquarium tapped into creative technology solutions like document cameras in order to support and encourage learning throughout the pandemic,” said Nathan Cheng, product manager, Epson America. “It’s beneficial for students visiting the aquarium to get the experience of this education staff and it’s exciting to hear how Epson technology solutions help to support engaging students in unique and interesting ways.”
“It’s been really fun to think through different activities involving this resource,” said Archer. “More conventional — like drawing and writing — but also including it in some of our science experiments and lab work that we do.”
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