XR Super Girls is a program of XR Marin to encourage girls and young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, art, and math [STEAM] through the awesome potential of XR: Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality, (AR) and 360 Videos. This fall, XR Marin launched a series of XR Super Girl Friday Meet Ups designed to introduce the fundamentals of immersive technology to middle school, high school, and college-aged girls and young women. We aim to provide foundational knowledge, basic tech skills, and a sisterhood community, with an eventual goal of increasing the number of female students engaged in STEAM-related classes and careers.
"Our attendees will be able to confidently enroll with more assurance of their abilities and knowledge in our beginner XR Student Academies at XR Marin," said Maya Bartolf, Community Engagement at XR Marin. XR Super Girls encourages girls and young women to express their wisdom, voice, and creativity via the awesome potential of XR. Moms are also welcome to join in the fun with their daughters.
Launched on International Day of the Girl 2019 on October 11, the first XR Super Girls Friday Meet Up introduced participants to VR through a creative expression project using Tilt Brush, Google's painting tool. Attendees were encouraged to create personally important or meaningful imagery in the limitless canvas of VR. Attendees then shared their VR creations with peers, which was followed by reflections in small and large groups.
The second Meet Up on October 18 introduced 3D modeling in VR through the lens of the beauty and diversity of our world’s oceans. Using Blocks 3D, another Google creative tool, students learned how to create virtual sea creatures and upload them into a whimsical undersea scene created by the entire team with Tilt Brush. This collaborative project represents the possibilities in VR, where individual creative expression can be combined with the work of others to create a collective, powerful, immersive experience.
In Our Ocean, a VR experience created with Google's Tilt Brush and Blocks by attendees at the XR Super Girls Meet Ups on October 11 and 18, 2019.
At the next Friday Meet Up on November 1, we will explore Oculus’s Medium, a tool that allows the user to sculpt virtual clay and create whimsical characters and creatures. We will also upload our newly sculpted 3D models of sea life to our collective project, In Our Ocean, an immersive experience in virtual created at the first meet up with Tilt Brush immersive environment.
In Our Ocean, a VR experience created with Google's Tilt Brush and Blocks by attendees at the XR Super Girls Meet Ups on October 11 and 18, then completed by adding 3D coral reef models with Oculus Medium on at XR Super Girls Meet Up on Nov. 1 2019.
On November 15, we will have a very special guest, Sasha Samochina, Visualization Producer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA JPL), who will video chat live with us from Pasadena. Sasha will share how she found her voice and obtained a cool job at NASA JPL, where she now creates interactive immersive experiences using 360 video to help scientists and engineers share their work with the public. Participants will also learn how to make their own 360 videos during the Meet Up. Please register here to attend!