MicroMuseum, Sessions 5 & 6 – Setting the Location

The youth spent two whole days of their spring break with MicoMuseum for our 5th and 6th sessions. And boy did we get things done!!

The first day we explored children’s games designed by Toca Boca, as well as their augmented reality game, and AR experiences created by GeoMedia.

We also visited the 12 possible exhibits that could become the basis of the “MicroGames” (instead of “minigames”) we will be prototyping for MicroRangers.

We weighed the pros and cons of each site and brainstormed interactive AR experiences around each one.

These included the Kelp Forest / Gut microbes:

Elephants / Tuberculosis:

and Armadillos / Leprosy:

Another exciting thing that we got to do was Skype with Jeremy from GeoMedia (the company who will be making the AR prototype we design!). Everyone had a chance to ask questions and learn more about AR from someone in the business.

• Frogs / Chytrid
• Mbuti Pygmies / Haemophilus
• Beavers / Giardia
• Water Buffalo / Methanogen
• Coral / Zooxanthellae

It was sad letting some of the other exhibits and game ideas go but it is also exciting to start focusing and designing more. Plus we need to toughen ourselves so we will be ready to whittle down to just two very, very soon…

In our second full day session, we were able to dig deep into the five sites that made the cut from the original dozen!

We dug deep into the scientific content and explored how microbes are integral to each of the five exhibit sites. For example, we watched this video on coral bleaching and the microorganism zooxanthellae.

We also dug deep into our creative powers, thinking up awesome games, characters and interactions for each site. There were costumes, accents and very descriptive names…

Our day culminated in a beta-test walk-through (everyone with a giant microbe in tow). We went to each of our five sites and used a cardboard iPad, live youth actors and paper cards to walk through how the MicroRangers game may ultimately work!

Everyone did a great job researching, creating and getting things done!

Here’s the Bonus Learning Activity for this week:

They buzz. They bite. And they have killed more people than cancer, war, or heart disease. Here’s the question: If you could wipe mosquitoes off the face of the planet, would you?

Listen to this radio story and think about it! Leave a comment. 🙂