Coral Reef Ecology VR Experience — Sea & Learn Foundation, Saba | 360° Live Action | Interactive | Education

Not all meaningful work comes with a large budget or a Fortune 500 client. This project was developed for the Sea & Learn Foundation on the island of Saba in the Caribbean — a mission-driven experience designed to bring coral reef ecology to life for grade-six students learning about one of the Caribbean's most impressive reef systems.

The experience combines 360° live action footage shot both underwater and on land, guided by a coach narrator who walks students through coral biology and reef ecology chapter by chapter. Interactive elements — sick coral identification, multiple choice questions, pop-up educational content, and teleport navigation — follow similar instructional design principles as the enterprise clients I've worked with, adapted here for a younger audience in a classroom setting.

The production was intentionally lean. Shot on dual Insta360 X5 cameras with underwater housings, edited in Premiere Pro, and authored in 3DVista Virtual Tour, the experience was deployed remotely to Meta Quest 3 headsets in Saba classrooms. I handled every stage of production — writing, design, shooting, and post — in close collaboration with my brother Aaron Pilnick, a conservation biologist at the University of Florida who served as the project's primary SME.

The experience was successfully deployed in Saba classrooms and used alongside written curriculum materials. Sea & Learn has expressed interest in continuing the partnership — a small but meaningful signal that the work landed.