https://youtu.be/O7gn2e-fGA4?t=53
In Virtual Reality News
February 1, 2023 – Prisms VR, a learning platform pioneering a new paradigm for math education, has announced that it has raised USD $12.5 million in a Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz to help accelerate math literacy throughout the US.
Prisms launched its educational technology platform in 2021 to bring problem-driven, tactile and visual learning to the math classroom by leveraging virtual reality (VR) to accelerate math proficiencies in US schools.
According to the company, using VR to learn helps students to understand the “why” behind math. Already adopted by 100+ school districts across 26 states, Prisms is bringing meaningful, purpose-driven math teaching and learning to more than 80,000 students. From rural to large cities, students are being given the opportunity to learn abstract concepts that are typically memorized, through tactile real world experiences instead.
Founded by CEO Anurupa Ganguly, Prisms aims to address what the company states is a lack of relevant math learning solutions, which has led to low proficiency rates across the US for decades.
“Educational technology that is efficacious at scale is hard to find. We believe that Anurupa and her team have pioneered a novel approach – one that is able to leverage VR technology to teach students the way they learn best,” said Jeff Jordan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “We’re excited to be a partner as Prisms not only continues to make a massive impact on students across the country, but also paves the way for the future of education.”
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As a math and physics teacher in Boston, Ganguly found that the US education system doesn’t enable students to utilize the multiple modalities through which human beings make sense, reason and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Commenting on the Prisms platform and the company’s new funding, Ganguly said: “Technology has failed our students, especially where math is concerned. With new developments in immersive tech, we have the opportunity to make learning experiential and connected to students’ lives.”
She added, “Prisms is the first learning solution that empowers students to experience real-life problems with their bodies versus reading about them divorced from personal experience. They are then able to build up to shorthand abstractions from intuitive visual and tactile experiences that lead to enduring retention and deeper understanding.”
Prisms intends to use the funds from this latest round to accelerate growth and adoption of its product and team. The funds will also go to expanding programs to more schools across the US and product development in higher education and other subjects.
“Though education is VR’s most powerful use case, we haven’t seen disruptive VR learning tools transforming formal classroom settings, until now. Math education is going to be the killer app for VR,” continued Ganguly.
Prisms’ VR math content module is available to parents, tutors and teachers through a USD $24 annual subscription via the Meta Quest Store. The company also offers a 7-day free trial.
To learn more about Prisms VR and its virtual reality solution for learning math, please visit the company’s website.
Image / video credit: Prisms VR / YouTube
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.