A high school student's virtual-reality classroom concept is set to expand beyond his local school. Lennox French, a student at Lexington Senior High School in North Carolina, has been selected to develop and implement a virtual-reality learning unit for SparkNC, the state's platform for innovative education programs. The project makes French the first student in SparkNC's history to create a unit for the statewide platform.

French's idea began at the Spark Lab at Lexington Senior High, where students explore emerging technologies and develop ideas with real-world applications. He built an initial version of a virtual-reality Spark Lab last year, which drew the attention of state officials.

The state approved his proposal, and French will now construct the unit, which could eventually be available to students across North Carolina.