Merge provides an effective alternative to physical teaching aids. Every student can access digital teaching aids that help them learn science at home or in the classroom.
Powerful, visual and hands-on Science Simulations
Teach science effectively with simulations your students can touch, hold and interact with. Students will understand complex topics more easily and remember what they learned longer.
Deepen engagement with hands-on, student-led activities
Captivate your student’s attention with active, hands-on experiences. With easy-to-follow activity plans and built-in quizzes, students gain key knowledge while immersed in learning.
Merge’s innovative approach to learning resources is a significant leap forward in giving students the ability to hold and study objects in their hands without having to pass physical models and items to other students. Setting a new standard, the digital teaching aids will alter the way millions of students learn in 150,000 U.S. schools as well as over a billion students worldwide.
“Because of COVID-19, we live in a world where students are not allowed to share resources or materials in school, or they simply don’t have access because they are learning virtually at home,” says Mr. Gabe Haydu, 5th grade teacher at the Singapore American School. “For science class, this has really big implications. Science is full of abstract and complex concepts that become concrete for students only when they have access to the right hands-on resources.”
Better learning happens when students have access to differentiated instruction that engages multiple senses and gets them learning in a way that’s active and hands-on. But the official CDC guidelines to lower the risk of spreading COVID-19 in classrooms advises against sharing objects like classroom resources, materials or supplies. The inability for students to use and share teaching aids could have negative effects on learning.
In response, Merge has created collections of true-to-life digital teaching aids like rocks, minerals, animal teeth and skulls, cells, and more that cover a wide range of science topics so that students can still learn using hands-on, real-world models. Only, instead of being physical models, they are digital 3D models that use the Merge Cube and augmented reality technology.
Merge Cube is the only product in the world that lets you hold digital objects. When combined with a mobile device and Merge EDU apps, the Merge Cube can transform into virtually any 3D object, enabling a powerful new way to learn that is innovative yet familiar.
“Learning with digital 3D models works just as well as the real thing,” says Dr. Jesse Courtier, Co-founder of startup Sira Medical. “We just completed a study that compared the test scores of radiology students that used real human cadavers to study, and another group who used AR objects on the Merge Cube to study, and there was no statistically significant difference in test scores between the groups. This result is of interest, particularly in times of increased focus on distance learning, since it shows AR [with the Merge Cube] can provide students an effective method of absorbing complex 3D material independently while using fewer resources.”
With Merge EDU, science teachers can explain concepts more effectively, STEM programs can expand beyond the classroom, and schools can introduce new educational technology that prepares students for our ever-changing world.
About Merge
Merge develops award-winning augmented reality and virtual reality products for K-12 education. Their spatial computing technology lets students touch and interact with digital 3D content for enjoyable new ways to learn.
The Merge ecosystem consists of Merge Cube, Merge Headset, Merge Miniverse, and Merge EDU platform. These products enable students to interact with AR/VR content and learn in new ways, while giving teachers new tools to increase student engagement, intellectual curiosity, and classroom achievement, at home and school.
Merge technology is used in K-12 schools, libraries, museums, universities, healthcare, environmental science, and other industries around the world. Visit www.MergeEdu.com.
