ARLINGTON – Kent Prairie Elementary students experienced what it’s like to see a tornado and travel to the sun using Google’s augmented reality technology.

A Google for Education representative visited the school Feb. 9 and let the students engage with three-dimensional objects that were placed around the school. Using a smart phone, students could walk around various objects like a lobster, tornado and planet and actually enter them.

“There were so many things to see that I hadn’t seen before,” first-grader Parker Howatson said. “I was inside the Earth.”

Kindergarten teacher Nikki Brooks applied to have Google bring this technology to the school for the day. There’s a possibility that in the future, teachers might be able to create their own content to further student learning.

“If you’re studying a unit about dinosaurs, you could use augmented reality to bring the dinosaurs to life so students could see first-hand how the dinosaurs moved and interacted,” Brooks said. “This really helps to keep students excited about lessons and furthers their engagement.”