Shiftheads - This School Trains Shop Class in Virtual Reality First

Before a single grade eight student in Ontario touches a lathe, they're putting on a VR headset and learning a machine shop that isn't real yet. Kris Abel walks through the first school in the country to try it, plus a zoo with no live animals and a soccer match played entirely by humanoid robots. VR Before the Real Machines Kris Abel explains how Fletcher Creek Senior Public School built a virtual machine shop so students learn safety habits, like putting on glasses before a machine starts, without any real risk. He also shares what growing up in his father's machine shop taught him about spotting a dangerous workspace. Robots That Actually Play the Game From there, Kris Abel describes a traveling zoo made entirely of animatronic animals, funded by cookie sales instead of ticket prices, and a humanoid robot soccer match in South Korea that turned out far more entertaining than expected. Topics: VR shop class, animatronic zoo, humanoid robot soccer, machine shop safety, tech news GUEST: Kris Abel | krisabel.com | @realkrisabel Originally aired on 2026-07-14