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Today, I am going to show you

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how this tablet and this virtual-reality
headset that I'm wearing

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are going to completely
revolutionize science education.

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And I'm also going to show you

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how it can make any science teacher
more than twice as effective.

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But before I show you
how all of this is possible,

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let's talk briefly about why improving
the quality of science education

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is so vitally important.

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If you think about it,

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the world is growing incredibly fast.

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And with that growth comes
a whole list of growing challenges,

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challenges such as dealing
with global warming,

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solving starvation and water shortages

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and curing diseases,

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to name just a few.

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And who, exactly, is going to help us
solve all of these great challenges?

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Well, to a very last degree,
it is these young students.

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This is the next generation
of young, bright scientists.

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And in many ways, we all rely on them

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for coming up with new, great innovations

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to help us solve all
these challenges ahead of us.

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And so a couple of years back,

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my cofounder and I were teaching
university students just like these,

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only the students we were teaching
looked a little bit more like this here.

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(Laughter)

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And yes, this is really
the reality out there

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in way too many universities
around the world:

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students that are bored, disengaged

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and sometimes not even sure
why they're learning about a topic

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in the first place.

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So we started looking around for new,
innovative teaching methods,

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but what we found was quite disappointing.

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We saw that books were being
turned into e-books,

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blackboards were being turned
into YouTube videos

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and lecture hall monologues
were being turned into MOOCs --

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massive online open courses.

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And if you think about it,

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all we're really doing here
is taking the same content

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and the same format,

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and bringing it out to more students --

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which is great, don't get me
wrong, that is really great --

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but the teaching method
is still more or less the same,

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no real innovation there.

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So we started looking elsewhere.

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What we found was that flight simulators
had been proven over and over again

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to be far more effective

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when used in combination with real,
in-flight training to train the pilots.

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And so we thought to ourselves:

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Why not just apply that to science?

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Why not build a virtual
laboratory simulator?

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Well, we did it.

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We basically set out to create

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a fully simulated, one-to-one,
virtual reality laboratory simulator,

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where the students
could perform experiments

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with mathematical equations

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that would simulate what would
happen in a real-world lab.

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But not just simple simulations --

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we would also create advanced simulations

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with top universities like MIT,

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to bring out cutting-edge cancer
research to these students.

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And suddenly, the universities
could save millions of dollars

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by letting the students
perform virtual experiments

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before they go into the real laboratory.

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And not only that; now,
they could also understand --

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even on a molecular level
inside the machine --

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what is happening to the machines.

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And then they could suddenly perform

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dangerous experiments in the labs as well.

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For instance also here,

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learning about salmonella bacteria,
which is an important topic

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that many schools cannot teach
for good safety reasons.

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And we, of course, quiz the students

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and then give the teachers
a full dashboard,

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so they fully understand
where the students are at.

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But we didn't stop there,

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because we had seen just
how important meaning is

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for the students' engagement in the class.

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So we brought in game designers

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to create fun and engaging stories.

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For instance, here in this case,

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where the students have to solve
a mysterious CSI murder case

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using their core science skills.

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And the feedback we got
when we launched all of this

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was quite overwhelmingly positive.

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Here we have 300 students,

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all passionately solving CSI murder cases

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while learning core science skills.

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And what I love the most about this

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is really when the students
come up to me sometimes afterwards,

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all surprised and a little confused,

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and say, "I just spent two hours
in this virtual lab,

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and ... and I didn't check Facebook."

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(Laughter)

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That's how engaging and immersive
this really is for the students.

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And so, to investigate
whether this really worked,

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a learning psychologist
did a study with 160 students --

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that was from Stanford University
and Technical University of Denmark.

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And what they did is split
the students into two groups.

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One group would only use
the virtual laboratory simulations,

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the other group would only use
traditional teaching methods,

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and they had the same amount of time.

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Then, interestingly,

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they gave the students a test
before and after the experiment,

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so they could clearly measure
the learning impact of the students.

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And what they found

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was a surprisingly high 76 percent
increase in the learning effectiveness

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when using virtual laboratories
over traditional teaching methods.

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But even more interestingly,

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the second part of this study investigated

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what the teacher's impact
was on the learning.

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And what they found

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was that when you combined
the virtual laboratories

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with teacher-led coaching and mentoring,

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then we saw a total 101 percent
increase in the learning effectiveness,

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which effectively doubles
the science teacher's impact

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with the same amount of time spent.

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So a couple of months back,

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we started asking ourselves --

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we have a wonderful team now
of learning psychologists

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and teachers and scientists
and game developers --

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and we started asking ourselves:

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How can we keep ourselves to our promise

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of constantly reimagining education?

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And today, I am really excited
to be presenting what we came up with

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and have been working
incredibly hard to create.

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I will explain briefly what this is.

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Basically, I take my mobile phone --

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most students already
have these, smartphones --

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and I plug it into this virtual-reality
headset, a low-cost headset.

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And now what I can effectively do is,

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I can literally step
into this virtual world.

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We'll have some of you
in the audience also get to try this,

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because it is really something
that you have to try

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to fully feel how immersive it really is.

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It literally feels like I just stepped
inside this virtual lab.

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Do you see me up on the screen?

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Audience: Yes.

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Michael Bodekaer: Great! Awesome.

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So basically, I have just
turned my mobile phone

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into a fully simulated, million-dollar
Ivy League laboratory

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with all this amazing equipment
that I can interact with.

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I can, for instance, pick up the pipette
and do experiments with it.

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I have my E-Ggel, my PCR
and -- oh, look there,

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I have my next-generation
sequencing machine,

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and there I even have
my electron microscope.

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I mean, who's carrying around
an electron microscope in their pocket?

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And here I have my machine,

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I can do different experiments
on the machine.

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And over here I have the door,

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I can go into other experiments,

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I can perform in the laboratories.

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And here, I have my learning tablet.

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This is an intelligent tablet

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that allows me to read
about relevant theory.

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As you can see, I can interact with it.

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I can watch videos and see
content that is relevant

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to the experiment
that I'm performing right now.

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Then over here, I have Marie.

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She is my teacher --
my lab assistant --

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and what she does is guides me
through this whole laboratory.

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And very soon,

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the teachers will be able
to literally teleport themselves

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into this virtual world
that I'm in right now

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and help me, guide me,
through this whole experiment.

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And now before I finalize this,

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I want to show you
an even cooler thing, I think --

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something you cannot
even do in real laboratories.

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This is a PCR machine.

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I'm now going to start this experiment.

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And what I just did is literally
shrunk myself a million times

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into the size of a molecule --

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and it really feels like it,
you have to try this.

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So now it feels like
I'm standing inside the machine

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and I'm seeing all the DNA,
and I see the molecules.

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I see the polymerase
and the enzymes and so forth.

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And I can see how in this case,

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DNA is being replicated millions of times,

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just like it's happening
inside your body right now.

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And I can really feel and understand
how all of this works.

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Now, I hope that gives you
a little bit of a sense

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of the possibilities
in these new teaching methods.

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And I want to also emphasize

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that everything you just saw
also works on iPads and laptops

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without the headsets.

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I say that for a very important reason.

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In order for us to really
empower and inspire

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the next generation of scientists,

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we really need teachers
to drive the adoption

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of new technologies in the classroom.

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And so in many ways,

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I believe that the next big,
quantum leap in science education

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lies no longer with the technology,

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but rather with the teachers' decision

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to push forward and adopt
these technologies

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inside the classrooms.

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And so it is our hope that more
universities and schools and teachers

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will collaborate with technology companies

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to realize this full potential.

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And so,

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lastly, I'd like to leave you
with a little story

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that really inspires me.

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And that is the story of Jack Andraka.

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Some of you might already know him.

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Jack invented a new, groundbreaking
low-cost test for pancreatic cancer

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at the age 15.

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And when Jack shares his story
of how he did this huge breakthrough,

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he also explains that one thing
almost prevented him

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from making this breakthrough.

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And that was that he did not
have access to real laboratories,

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because he was too inexperienced

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to be allowed in.

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Now, imagine if we could bring

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Ivy League, million-dollar
virtual laboratories

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out to all these students just like Jack,

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all over the world,

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and give them the latest, greatest,
most fancy machines you can imagine

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that would quite literally
make any scientist in here

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jump up and down out of pure excitement.

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And then imagine how that
would empower and inspire

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a whole new generation
of young and bright scientists,

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ready to innovate and change the world.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)