Sep 24th, 2012
LAKE WALES – Generous donors recently gave Edward W. Bok Academy the money necessary to buy neural headsets as part of the school’s STEM: Science Technology Engineering and Math program.
Principal Damien Moses expressed excitement for his students, and gratitude for ongoing community support for Bok Academy.
“The Emotiv EPOC headsets give students an opportunity of a lifetime to have hands-on learning with a tool that shows the true capacity of our human brains,” said Principal Damien Moses.
“The dream of a mere thought turning into an action has become a reality at Bok Academy,” Moses said.
The neural headsets are based on cutting-edge neuro-technology, and offer a revolutionary method of human and computer interaction. The headset senses the electric signals produced by the brain to detect the user’s thoughts, feelings, and expressions, and the headset connects wirelessly to most computers.
“Basically it’s like having the Force,” said one student. The EPOC neuroheadset, designed by Emotiv, have been featured in news stories on the BBC, CNBC, ABC, Discovery Channel, NewScientist, Wired, and Forbes.
“I first saw these mind-reading headsets on a TED Talk with my students,” said Life Science teacher Joshua Fell, “and I was just as excited about this new technology as they were. I’m so glad generous donors were able to see the incredible potential these resources could have to influence our students and give them real exposure to what current researchers and scientists are working with now.”
Bok Academy currently implements iPads, Macbooks, and other technologies in all classrooms, from core disciplines to Keystone classes such as Robotics and STEM. With this newest resource, Bok reinforces its commitment to “educating Renaissance thinkers for the digital age,” said Moses.
Using these headsets, students will explore the possibilities of using just their thoughts to control computers or even robots. Science and STEM classes will pioneer these headsets and experiment with their exciting uses. The EPOC headsets will used and displayed during Bok Academy’s STEM Week, Oct. 23-26.
If you are interested in learning more about Bok Academy’s STEM program or STEM Week, contact Damien Moses at Damien.moses@lwcharterschools.com or 863-638-1010.
PHOTO: Student wearing the EPOC headset
PHOTO: Publicity photo (from Emotiv EPOC) of a model wearing the headset.
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