Imagine walking into a classroom where you are encouraged to play in the sand, manipulate computer programing code to model real-life processes including precipitation, evaporation, volcanic lava flows, and sea level rise and evaluate possible solutions to pressing community concerns. Because the AR Sandbox has the potential to be utilized in many of our courses from sheltered English Language Learner Earth Science through Advanced Placement, we will be modifying the design of the AR Sandbox so that it can easily be rolled into neighboring classrooms with all the tools contained within an upcycled media cart.

The AR Sandbox was originally developed through a National Science Foundation grant by the UC Davis’ W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences, along with UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, Lawrence Hall of Science, and ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center. While it was developed for informal science education and has been replicated in many science museums and university settings, we want to make it more common in formal science classrooms where it has the potential to positively impact many students as a permanent fixture on our science hallway.