Today's STEM classrooms rely increasingly on high-tech gadgets just as much as printed books.

And in many cases, it's students teaching teachers how to understand the new devices.That was the case for Project SHINE instructors and a few other local educators, who last week got a lesson from high school students in how to use the ZSpace, a new virtual reality device that is starting to be used in classrooms around the country.Kelsey Flores, a sophomore at Meyers High School in Wilkes-Barre, showed teachers how to explore a 3-D model of a heart, which beat at different speeds, a physics simulator, and a program with virtual dissection. At Meyers, they are already using the ZSpace.SHINE teachers said that with all the new technology their program uses, it's not uncommon for their students to know more than they do at first."When I first started, we were doing 3-D printers. The kids had to teach me how to use it," said Tavia Cardell, a SHINE instructor at L.B. Morris Elementary in Jim Thorpe.SHINE just received three ZSpaces, making them one of just a handful of programs in Pennsylvania that own the device. They are hoping to deploy two of them at their seven locations in Carbon and Schuylkill counties. A third unit will be permanently stationed at CCTI."It's just like CSI," SHINE director Rachel Strucko said of the software. "Another way to get kids excited about education."The ZSpace consists of a desktop monitor that projects 3-D images if the user is wearing the included 3-D glasses. Motion detecting software allows users can view and interact with a wide array of 3-D programs."Medical schools are using it before they let their students start doing surgery, she said.Flores, who instructed the teachers, said she wants to be an architect or engineer someday. But the ZSpace has piqued her interest in another STEM field, biology."You get to see what things are made of," she said. "Like, I never really knew what was in a virus before I used this program."