Bullock Creek is one of only four high schools this year participating in a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded program using Meta Quest 3 headsets in the Central Michigan University course HSC 211: Anatomy and Physiology.
"It's a huge opportunity to be able to use such advanced tools at such a young age to be able to interact with the body systems," Hockstra said. "To not just see it on a computer screen, but to have it and be able to manipulate it, is in my opinion a lot better than just a Chromebook."
On Thursday, April 30, Bullock Creek teacher Emily Crambell and the 18 students in her anatomy class demonstrated the headsets for visitors from CMU and members of the media. The technology, funded by a $500,000 USDA grant that initially runs from 2025-28, allows the user to virtually "step inside" the heart or whichever organ they may be studying.
"It's truly incredible to not only be able to see it, but to be able to interact with it and get up close and personal. It's the coolest thing," Hockstra enthused.
As Crambell herself donned a headset and guided her students through the steps of virtual dissection, CMU Associate Professor Roop Jayaraman joined the class remotely via a screen mounted on a robotic body adorned with a CMU shirt.
Jayaraman, who teaches the same class to CMU students on campus, serves as a resource to Crambell and to teachers at Freeland, Beal City and Essexville Garber, the other high schools in the program.
"We're still getting the hang of (the headsets). It's a work in progress," Hockstra acknowledged.
Crambell agreed that it's been an adjustment in this first year of the partnership between CMU and the four high schools.
"My class is super cool, but we did not use the goggles as much as we wanted to (this year). We want to improve that," she said. "I have some students who love them and some students who don't. They let you know, 'We've had enough today. We need a break.' They get headaches. Some get dizzy (from wearing the headsets too long)."
And Crambell encrourages the students who take naturally to the VR technology to help their classmates.
"We made those students like group leader to help the others, because, yeah, I can't run around and put out all the fires at the same time," Crambell said.
The bottom line, she said, is that Bullock Creek is fortunate to have this technology.
"There's definitely a lot of opportunity, and we're just very lucky that we're one of four schools out of all Michigan that get to do it," said Crambell, who took two days of training in the VR technology last summer at CMU along with teachers from the other three high schools.
Another Bullock Creek student, junior Chloe Tasior , said wearing the headset itself is not uncomfortable — it's just learning how to navigate virtual reality that's the challenge.
"It can be hard to control (the headsets) sometimes," she said.
Regardless, virtual reality adds a new dimension to learning, Tasior explained.
"You get to actually see it, and you can look into the skull or the heart and see how everything works. Without seeing that, it's more up to your imagination," she said. "We also looked at the heart, so we got to see the heart beat."
Greg Zimmerman, CMU Associate Dean of the College of Health Professions, explained that the ultimate goal of this partnership is to get more students interested in pursuing health fields and to see those students return to their hometowns to work after college.
"Being that this is a human anatomy/physiology course that we're offering here at Bullock Creek and three other high schools, (we hope many students will) determine that health professions is their path, and hopefully pursue that through a college or university and return to their communities and serve out their career," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman hopes to expand the partnership to several more high schools in the future.
© 2026 the Midland Daily News (Midland, Mich.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
