New research included in the Education Insights 2025-2026 report offers a clear view of how important engagement is to learning, motivation, and achievement.
To support deeper student engagement across the curriculum, Discovery Education makes available to educators worldwide a host of experiences that deeply engages learners and captivates their senses, emotions, and attention, creating a sense of being fully surrounded and absorbed in a particular environment or activity. These resources, which can be found at Discovery Education’s Immersive Learning website, transport students out of their classroom, their neighborhood, and sometimes their planet and time period, to witness firsthand the topic of interest.
Among the resources found on Discovery Education’s Immersive Learning website are:
TimePod Adventures
TimePod Adventures from Verizon and Discovery Education immerses K-12 students in the universe through state-of-the-art, life-size Augmented Reality. Accessible on a browser, Chromebook, or mobile device, students need only internet access and audio. Guided by an AI-powered assistant and featuring grade-band specific lesson plans available in English and Spanish, TimePod Adventures support educators in developing new skills and encourages students to take control, explore incredible environments, and solve complex challenges.
Sandbox
The BETT and GESS award winning Sandbox app, which is now available in both the Google Play store and Apple App store, enables students to create virtual worlds using unique objects from history, science, nature, and more. Sandbox also gives students new ways to express themselves and demonstrate their learning through features like photo taking or annotations on virtual text panels. Designed to create immersive experiences, Sandbox offers a mode that allows users to explore and create content from inside their own virtual environments. Sandbox also includes many pre-built sandboxes exploring diverse subjects, such as ancient Egypt, space exploration, Maya civilization, road construction, and more, with additional themed 3D models added regularly. Finally, subscribers to Discovery Education Experience have access to additional, standards-aligned ready-to-use Sandbox lessons that enhance classroom instruction.
Game-Based Learning
Discovery Education’s game-based learning resources boost motivation, create a heightened sense of achievement, encourage a growth mindset, and aid with knowledge retention. Through game-based immersive experiences, students can become more receptive to further learning. Among the game-based learning resources are:
Crash Course is an interactive 3D experience that helps students in grades 6-12 learn the principles of speed and the forces involved in a real-time crash test-based scenario. In this immersive game-based learning experience from Honda Safety Driven, students select course variables, then take the wheel of a Honda Civic Type R to witness the outcome of safety decisions.
The cutting edge Haul! Learning Experience is designed to provide students in grades 6-12 the opportunity to discover how copper ore makes its way into the items that power our day. A part of Dig Into Mining – The Story of Copper, the educational program created in partnership with Freeport-McMoRan that uncovers the use of metals such as copper in our everyday life, HAUL! challenges students to navigate their way through a 3D copper mine to earn their Haul Truck Operator’s Scorecard while learning how STEM is used in this larger-than-life operation.
I
n Operation Communication, a new immersive game from the STEM Careers Coalition, students in grades 6-12 experience a day in the life of an employee in a simulated workplace, navigating production schedules, team dynamics, and customer satisfaction. Players practice a wide range of active skills with a focus on effective communication in the workplace to keep the production line running smoothly and create happy customers.
HARVEST: From Seed to Success from Cooperative Minds with the CHS Foundation empowers students in grades 3-12 step into the role of a farmer and discover what it takes to grow a successful harvest. In the experience, students consult agricultural professionals to analyze a soil sample, select crops and fertilizers, identify the right moment to harvest, and simulate operating a combine to harvest crops. An accompanying educator guide and ready-to-use student activities make it easy for educators to integrate the resource into any lesson plan.
Interactives
With interactive resources from Discovery Education, students can travel the trade paths of Ancient Rome, grow tomatoes in a virtual lab, and solve equations at a zombie luau! Research, experiment and have fun learning about topics at your own pace through a variety of interactive types—including virtual labs, games, investigations, interactive maps, and more. Among the interactives available are:
– The Interactive Virtual Labs, created in partnership with the LEGO Group’s Build the Change program, investigate Bird Behavior and invite students in grades 6-8 to explore innovative ways to improve human-bird interactions in their shared environment. Designed to spark creativity and curiosity, these labs immerse students in engaging, hands-on experiences that connect the wider world to the classroom.
– Plus, students of all ages can dig into grade-banded interactives covering important topics like financial literacy, data analysis, biotechnology, and Earth sciences.
Virtual Field Trips
Virtual field trips (VFTs) empower educators to introduce students to amazing places, new people and ideas, and remarkable experiences, without ever leaving the classroom. Discovery Education, a pioneer in creating VFTs, offers a large library of fun and engaging resources, including.
– The Bridge to the Future: A Virtual Field Trip into Extended Reality with Verizon shows students how extended reality is redefining the world from entertainment and medicine to education and beyond. Students visit the Verizon Innovation Lab in Boston, Massachusetts to discover how new technologies are connecting people and redefining the possibilities of how we interact. Students will also get an up-close look at exciting careers in cybersecurity, gaming, and engineering by meeting with STEM professionals.
– Additional resources to support learning are available, such as a standards-aligned companion guide with hands-on activities and educator support content. Learn more about all the virtual field trips – including new ones with partners like LEGO, the National Science Foundation, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBA, LIV Golf, and more – here.
Immersive resources encourage a style of learning which is based on problem-solving and trial and error. Immersive learning gives students permission to fail, to try again, and to overcome obstacles which initially may seem insurmountable. Discovery Education offers educators new to immersive learning a host of professional development resources to ensure they feel supported as they integrate these resources into classroom learning.
For more about the free Immersive Learning resources from Discovery Education, learn more.
