Students help shape the future of soil learning through SOIL-XR Co-Design Workshops in Italy 

As part of the SOIL-XR project, the Bluezona team recently organized a series of 3 co-design workshops in Italy, bringing together students to actively contribute to the development of the project’s immersive learning platform. 

The workshops were designed to place young people at the center of the innovation process, recognizing them as the future users of the SOIL-XR platform. Rather than simply testing a finished product, participants were invited to become co-designers, sharing ideas and feedback that will help shape the visual, functional, and narrative elements of the future Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) learning experiences. 

During the sessions, students were introduced to the goals of the SOIL-XR project and explored key soil-related topics that will form the basis of the platform, including soil formation and layers, soil erosion, soil organic carbon, soil biodiversity, and the relationship between soil and water. To encourage active participation, students engaged in a variety of hands-on activities that connected scientific concepts with real-world experiences. 

These included building miniature soil profiles to understand soil layers, exploring soil erosion through practical experiments, examining the importance of soil organic carbon and regenerative agricultural practices, and discussing the role of biodiversity in maintaining healthy soils. The insights gathered during these co-design sessions will play an important role in guiding the development of SOIL-XR. By involving students directly in the design process, the project ensures that the final platform responds to the interests, learning needs, and expectations of its target audience.