Elementary students at Rolling Hills Elementary School in Mukwonago got to experience the High Arctic through a virtual reality tour made by their art teacher, according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Art students in Julie Theim’s class have never been to the High Arctic of Svalbard, a remote, sparsely-populated Norwegian archipelago halfway between Norway and the North Pole.

But through Theim’s efforts to create a virtual reality tour, they’ve been able to spy a frolicking arctic fox on a hillside, view thousands of birds soaring above the Alkefjellet bird cliff and see brightly-colored houses in Longyearbyen.

“Kids are learning about all of these things and all of these places, but if you can actually story-tell with them and show them what you’ve seen, then the project you do and the learning that happens is more relevant and meaningful to them,” she said.

See the images and read the full story here.

(If you’re reminded of a 2019 Wisconsin School News story, it might be this one, a first-hand report of Oconto Falls teacher Kelly Koller’s Arctic expedition.)