Virtual Learning in Year 11 Ancient History

In 2024 the HSIE Faculty is exploring innovative teaching and learning strategies to challenge students to think critically and creatively. Virtual Reality can deepen learning by giving students the opportunity to build memorable and immersive authentic learning experiences that are not usually possible in a normal school day. During a double lesson, Year 11 Ancient Historians had the opportunity to explore the tomb of Nefertiti through a virtual reality site study using our Lumination Labs in the Santa Sabina Library. Students had the freedom to investigate areas of the physical structure of the tomb and the hieroglyphics and symbols on the tomb walls that they found interesting. The aim of this lesson was to provide students with an immersive experience to heighten their engagement with the archaeological site of an Ancient Egyptian tomb and question how this tomb provides evidence about Ancient Egyptian society and historical personalities. Student feedback reported high levels of engagement, motivation and creative historical critical thinking.

Brigida Zagora
Head of HSIE (History and Social Sciences)

Student Reflections

Nefertiti’s tomb showed valuable insight into ancient Egyptian gods and beliefs especially in relation to the afterlife. For example the recurring image of Osiris, the God of the Dead, and the symbolic connection through images on Nafrati. I also found the virtual reality space of the tomb interesting and engaging, especially in understanding the height and layout of the tomb. It allowed me to better understand and appreciate the amount of labour and effort it would have taken in Antiquity to make it and how many key elements of the tomb have survived and been preserved over time, even after facing tomb robbers.
Emily Guerreiro

This digital site study is different from using stratigraphy and artefacts as it allows us to fully immerse ourselves into an Ancient Egyptian tomb to understand what life was like back then. The decoration on the walls of a tomb can allow us to learn about hieroglyphics and Ancient Egyptian culture and why the person in the tomb was so important to Ancient Egyptian society. The value of the digital tomb analysis is that we are able to fully immerse ourselves, however the limitation is that we aren’t able to touch artefacts.
Lauren Turner

The Lumination Lab was a really immersive experience that allowed us to engage with Ancient Egyptian culture. It was really interesting seeing the paintings, and carvings that adorned the walls, additionally, seeing the meaning behind them. I enjoyed seeing the different sections of the tomb, it felt really life-like and I even found myself moving around the tomb as if I was there in reality. It was really engaging and a great learning experience, I had a lot of fun.
Claire Carroll

The digital Lumination Lab visit provided an immersive visual learning experience which allowed us to get up close and personal in the constraints of the digital world with hieroglyphs and tomb layouts. Through our exploration of the walls we can learn about how hieroglyphs were displayed and set out and what information they could provide to Historians studying Ancient Egypt. The experience is valuable in terms of the amount of visual information which can be analysed.
Lily Vincent

The Lumination Lab site study was very different, it felt very surreal and strange as the light shone in particular areas, I could see a lot of dust in the air. It was very interesting to virtually walk around the tomb and look at the engravings on the walls.
Sofia Moyano

The experience was very immersive as I was drawn into the virtual world of the tomb of Nefertari. I enjoyed being able to explore the tomb and examine the walls in detail where there were lots of engravings and images of different gods the Egyptians worshipped at the time. The Virtual Reality made the experience very real as I found myself ducking to avoid hitting the ceiling or crouching down to see the hieroglyphics on the walls.
Tiffany Dao