[Courseware Feature Focus] Edmentum’s Augmented Reality Biology App

What if you could allow your students to explore the anatomy of a frog or study the traits of insects in a virtual bug collection without them leaving their desk or even their home? The future of the science classroom involves technology and some degree of virtual and hybrid learning, and Edmentum is already one step ahead by offering engaging augmented reality (AR) activities to supplement Courseware’s biology courses! Our goal is to redefine learning through immersive experiences and deliver standards-aligned learning activities in interactive ways that are accessible to all students anywhere learning occurs.

Edmentum AR Biology App

In our Biology A/B and Biology with Virtual Labs A/B courses, students have the option to complete augmented reality explorations on their mobile devices by downloading the free Edmentum AR Biology app, available for iOS and Android. The app’s activities are aligned to content of our biology courses, as are the provided worksheets that are meant to guide students through their AR experiences.

Take a look at this brief video to see Edmentum AR Biology activities in action!

The app is designed to engage students through three AR explorations where they can launch virtual objects onto any flat workspace in the classroom or at home for close observation and analysis. These science explorations allow students to connect to science in new and engaging ways and build their conceptual understanding prior to completing formal biology labs.

Three Immersive Biology Activities  

Through the AR Biology activities, students have the opportunity to extend their knowledge well beyond traditional science instruction in select topics.

Biology Semester A: Frog Dissection

In the Frog Dissection activity, students will perform a full dissection in a guided AR environment. The application guides each student to locate, remove, and analyze the frog’s internal organs with visual dissection tools.

Biology Semester B: Classifying Organisms

In the Classifying Organisms activity, students will observe the characteristics of insects in their AR workspace. Students will then identify the insect order using a progressive classification key.

Biology Semester B: Aerobic and Anaerobic Respiration

In the Aerobic and Anaerobic Respiration activity, students will work in a yeast-growing experiment. Students will create different solutions of water and sugar, then fast forward to observe how well the yeast grows in each solution over time.

Implementing AR Biology

The AR Biology activities and their related worksheets take around 30−45 minutes to complete, and they are completely optional. These activities are offered as a supplement to lab experiences but do not replace graded science labs. In fact, these AR explorations do not have grading expectations within the app—they are simply a fun way for students to get hands-on learning experiences with biology concepts.

Outside of the app, teachers can choose to grade students’ completed activity worksheets, as the documents give students a way to capture and record what they are learning. Answer keys for the activity worksheets are available to educators within the Courseware platform.  

Looking for more augmented reality in education? Read 7 Augmented Reality Apps Teachers Will Love, and learn more about Edmentum’s AR activities available for English 9!