Students at Northern Shores Elementary School delved into augmented reality software on Tuesday when they had the opportunity to beta test Google Expeditions by Google for Education.

“This brings the school information to them more concretely, and they can go back to the more abstract concept in a book,” said Melanie Burnor, a fourth-grade teacher at Northern Shores. “These kids grow up immersed in technology, and for them this is natural.”

Burnor applied for the Google experience earlier in the year and didn’t believe Northern Shores would be chosen. However, just days before spring break, they got a call letting them know they would be in the area.

Burnor and Principal Lori White quickly made schedules work so that kids would get the opportunity to test out the technology.

Teachers had a quick introduction to the software on Tuesday morning before demonstrating it to their classrooms over the course of the day.

“I was very excited, and when our teacher finally told us, the whole class was shocked,” said fourth-grade student Canyon Goetzch. “It was even more exciting when we got to play with it.”

Students were armed with phones, selfie sticks and papers with QR codes before getting started. The teacher held the lead phone that controlled the program, and with the touch of a button the children were able to see the solar system or safari animals right in front of them. The collective gasps let the teachers know that their students were interested in the technology.

“This is great for kids who like to do other things, and it lets them look at stuff in a different way than textbooks or a television,” Canyon said.

Google’s main purpose for coming to the school was to gather feedback from the students on what they liked and what they could improve. Canyon hoped that they could add more subjects to the technology so that kids could spend more time exploring.

Burnor was happy to bring technology into the classroom and seeing them explore the augmented reality made her happy.

“The best was the ‘aha’ moment they had collectively because they don’t expect it,” Burnor said. “That lightbulb moment as a teacher is why you come to work every day, and it’s nice to see the kids totally absorbed by all of it.”

Burnor hopes they can get the technology into the classroom soon, and she hopes to seek grants to help purchase it.

The idea of adding new technology to the classroom was something White could get behind for her teachers.

“I’m incredibly proud seeing this amazing staff look for new opportunities and challenging themselves,” White said. “They stepped out of their comfort zone, because it’s all about the students’ education.”