"This May Hertz" is a HTC Vive Virtual reality game designed to inspire year eight to ten students in possibly pursuing a career in science (and secondly music). The game experience is based in an underground lab where players get to interact with Tesla Coils and experience music made via electricity in a safe virtual environment. The game also teaches basic lab safety including putting on gloves and safety glasses.
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Interactions in the pre-lab instructional room include putting on safety equipment (and subsequently learning the VR HTC Vive controls) and pressing buttons.
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Interactions in the main lab include holding various objects to a live Tesla Coil, placing a Faraday Cage around the Tesla Coil and holding the same objects up to it, with different reactions, and standing in a Faraday Cage as musical electricity hits the cage. There are also various buttons and dials that can be changed to adjust lighting and other interactions.
What is "This May Hertz"?
Why are we making it?
We here at Ohm My Tesla are passionate about both science and music and wanted to inspire other people to be as passionate. In Australia, according to the Australian Government Statistic Website, participation in science subjects for year 11 and 12 is declining and in fact is the lowest it's been in 20 years! Our international ranking has dropped from 4th to 8th in science subjects! And while there aren't much statistics available for Music studies, we personally have seen the decline as less and less students are encouraged into art subjects.
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We know that we can't change the entire education system but what we can do is show students that science (and music) can be fun. So we took our best experiences in science learning and realised that we couldn't exactly put high-voltage & dangerous equipment in every class. What we could do however, was give access to a safe virtual learning environment that inspires students to look more into science as a career.
Why did we choose virtual reality?
We chose virtual reality because we wanted the experience to be as immersive as possible. There's also been a huge push from various state governments in putting virtual reality in classrooms (such as the ACT & WA). Admittedly, at this time most of the headsets are the cheaper Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR but it's a start.
THANK YOU
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