Why Education Is Important

Find a Child Therapist

Virtual environments make complex science concepts interactive and accessible.

Students build empathy, collaboration, and self-awareness alongside STEM skills.

Multisensory learning improves focus and deepens understanding of content.

Post by Alexa Sharkey, Shoaa Khan, Melissa Smith, Chloe Xu, Lia Sandilos, & Zilong Pan (Lehigh University)

Over the past 10 years, major advances in technology have greatly changed how we live our everyday lives. In education, these changes have moved the classroom away from static, lecture-based instruction toward dynamic, innovative lessons that utilize evolving technologies to improve student outcomes. This shift requires teaching methods that effectively use technology to support student engagement.

The Integration of Science Learning and Social-Emotional Inquiry

Integrating social-emotional learning into science instruction is a natural alignment, as scientific inquiry inherently requires creative thinking, collaboration, and adaptability. Social-emotional competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These social-emotional competencies strengthen the scientific mindset; for example, self-awareness bridges personal observation with scientific questioning, helping students notice their own reactions, curiosities, and assumptions and translate them into testable hypotheses about the natural world. Social awareness, in turn, supports the exchange of diverse perspectives that fuels innovation, allowing students to interpret data through multiple lenses rather than relying on a single viewpoint. By embedding relationship skills into the curriculum (e.g., active listening, turn-taking, constructive disagreement), educators can cultivate students’ empathy and communication, which are vital for collaborative research and problem-solving.

A group of faculty and students in Lehigh University’s ImmersED Creative Inquiry Program researches how the integration of social-emotional learning, academic content, and immersive technology supports learners. ImmersED designs STEM instructional modules that are specifically built for immersive learning classrooms (ILC; Figures 1 & 2) to support both academic learning and social-emotional skill development for elementary and secondary students. Immersive learning utilizes advanced technologies, such as virtual reality and 3D simulations, to transcend the limitations of traditional textbooks. In ILCs, students are surrounded by instructional content projected onto three of the four classroom walls, where they can watch, hear, and interact with the display. This approach is particularly effective for translating complex STEM concepts into accessible, hands-on explorations. ImmersED intentionally embeds social-emotionally aligned activities, such as structured group problem-solving to build relationship skills and guided reflection prompts to develop self-awareness, that reduce behavioral challenges and help students regulate emotions and interact positively.

The ILC allows students to be immersed in the subjects they are learning. For instance, it is not every day that an educator can take their class of 20-30 students to the local creek to observe and learn about the concept of the water cycle in science class. An ILC can virtually transport students to the local creek to experience the movement, sounds, and transformation of water through its different stages. Social-emotional learning helps students relate phenomena, such as changes in nature, to changes within themselves. For example, as students explore how water changes form in the STEM lessons, social-emotional learning is integrated by providing opportunities for students to discuss how, like water, emotions can change too, and to practice strategies for understanding and managing those changing feelings. Further, social interaction within the ILC provides opportunities for students to communicate ideas with classmates and navigate different perspectives, mirroring a typical classroom experience but enhanced by the shared immersive environment.

To test whether the ILC environment works with students, we tried it in a classroom setting with six elementary school students. We found that students gained both scientific knowledge and social-emotional skills. Furthermore, we interviewed the instructor after completing this module and found that the multisensory nature of the lesson was particularly effective in maintaining student focus and facilitating a deeper connection to the concepts presented.

The Future of Immersive Learning Environments

A new frontier of learning lies in classrooms that fuse innovative technology with academic and social-emotional components. The immersive environment benefits all students by transforming lessons into engaging, multisensory experiences. These adaptable rooms allow educators to tailor instruction, ensuring that learners can explore complex STEM topics while simultaneously building foundational social-emotional skills for their future. ImmersED opens doors beyond the traditional four walls, engaging students with multisensory environments they might otherwise never have experienced. The project’s goal is to continue creating new instructional modules, helping to transform classrooms into accessible, exciting, and future-focused environments where every learner can thrive.

Why Education Is Important

Find a Child Therapist

There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.

By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy

© Psychology Today