How can using technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality teach kids how food is grown?
Think Digital were proud to visit the Melbourne Royal Show from the 22nd of September to the 2nd of October 2022 showcasing the Woolworths Discovery Tour program.
The Woolworths Discovery Tour traditionally brought school groups into a Woolworths store, where they would tour the fresh food department, taste different fruits and vegetables, and get a behind the scenes look at operations at a supermarket including the cool rooms out the back.
The digital remaster of the Discovery Tour program puts digital experiences into the kids’ hands (or on their faces) and allows them to explore fresh fruit and vegetables using virtual and augmented reality.
Virtual reality technology and 360° video creates an immersive experience for the viewer where they can turn their head and explore the environment we transport them to. Our virtual reality experience we showcased at the Melbourne Royal Show was a tour of a potato farm and processor in South Australia, Mitolo Family Farms, where we demonstrated the paddock to plate journey of potatoes as well as highlighted environmental sustainability practices throughout the process. Did you know they transport the soil that is washed off of the potatoes back to the farm? We ran sessions of 14 people every day and over the course of the show welcomed over 4,500 people on board the Think Digital Coach!
Follow a potato on its journey through the coach below:
Visitors also engaged with augmented reality experiences learning about how seeds grow into plants, what they look like, and where they’re located inside different fruits and vegetables. Kids and parents mixed and matched pairs of cubes, one with fruits and veggies, one with seeds, to guess which seeds grow into each fruit, and watched the plants grow using augmented reality technology! The activity was very popular throughout the activation and kids and parents alike were delighted to see the AR animations pinned to the cubes, highlighting the growth above as well as below the soil.
At the Melbourne Royal Show we also had augmented reality enabled cards for visitors to scan. Once scanned, a fruit or vegetable popped up on top of the cards, split apart, and showed where the seeds are located. Many kids likened the activity to a fruit ninja style game and pretended to chop the fruits and vegetables in half! This activity was a new addition to our activation, but is also part of the Digital Discovery Tour classroom kit that teachers can order online for free – find out more about the Digital Discovery Tour classroom program and order a kit here. The kit contains activities using virtual and augmented reality technology to teach how food is grown as well as user guides and lesson plans!
The large touch screen was also a popular activity, featuring a drag and drop game that uses technology to teach kids about where their food comes from – a tree, vine, bush, underground or above ground.
As well as being exciting and fun activities for kids and parents to engage with, the educational value of these activities highlights the impact technology can have on creating meaningful learning experiences. Kids love technology! We have seen a huge increase in the adoption of virtual reality and augmented reality in the past few years in the agriculture industry. Visit these pages to learn more about how we use virtual reality and augmented reality in agriculture.