History Club AI Lunchtime Learning in the Lumination Labs

This term the History Club is exploring AI through the fabulous Santa Sabina Lumination Labs. This is a great way for students to be digitally immersed within historical sites. A huge congratulations to the History Ambassadors for leading this History Club AI Lunchtime series. Students from all year groups are encouraged to come and join in the History Club on Wednesdays at lunch time to play with AI for virtual learning.

Brigida Zagora
Head of HSIE (Humanities and Social Sciences)

From the History Ambassadors

In our most recent History Club lunchtime meeting, we had the exciting opportunity of using some of the school’s fantastic education tools, the Virtual Reality Lumination Labs, to explore one of the world’s most renowned ancient cities by using AI. While listening to a track about the rich history of Ancient Rome, students were able to take a virtual walk around famous sites such as the Colosseum, and even fly up to the top of structures! Multi-sensory immersion in the history of Ancient Rome, in all of its grandeur, added depth and nuance to students’ studies and knowledge of the city – the architecture, the culture, and the people.

Lifelike AI interaction with the environment and architecture prompted appreciation of the power of human creativity, whilst virtual placement amongst other Romans reminded us of the key historical concept of empathy. It’s easy to feel detached from ancient societies, however, everybody who attended our session left with a layered understanding of Rome’s humanity – the daily routines and social dynamics that shaped lives.

Students from younger years found the experience especially engaging and fascinating, as it allowed them to experiment with new, hands-on methods of learning rather than traditional classroom work. We heard many ‘Oohs!’ and ‘Aahs!’, lots of giggles, and many thoughtful questions revolving around life in Ancient Rome – ‘What’s this building called?’, ‘What was this used for?’, ‘I can’t believe that they lived like this!’. It was lovely to witness the intersection between historical curiosity and learning. History brings people together! Students of all ages joined us and mingled – from Year 7 right through to Year 11. The appeal of the Lumination Labs endures.

The VR immersion deepened our critical thinking and gave added context to things we’ve learned in class. Ultimately, this virtual reality experience was a wonderful opportunity to learn and socialise, and we look forward to hosting more sessions in the future!

Calliope Stewart, Emily Wong and Monterey Tam
Year 11 History Ambassadors