Category: fun

fun, html5, NASA: Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms, Research

Mission: Water – our new VR experience

Dan, Kennedy, Jeff, Sophie, and Lizzy attended the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference in Philadelphia from June 23-25.

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They presented their virtual reality game, “Mission: Water,” under the umbrella of Microsoft’s presence at the conference.

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The ISTE Conference was very successful: close to 100 people demoed the game or chatted with the team about the project. Many educators and technologists expressed their excitement for the game and for the lesson plan, which will be published on PBS LearningMedia this fall. The team is very excited for the positive response and is looking forward to the official launch of all of the resources later this year.

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The VR game is available already here for free.

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The WGBH team, led by Bill Shribman, has been collaborating with Microsoft for the last year developing this game for a middle school classroom. The game consists of two networked apps: one VR game and one HTML5 game, both connected and communicating to each other.

In the experience, two players need to work together to travel through the solar system and collect samples of water at three destinations. The water samples provide data for the students to analyze and compare, and then the students can discuss which location provides the most abundant and accessible forms of water.

One high school teacher reacted to playing this as follows, talking about the children she teaches:

 

ARTHUR, fun, games, html5

Dark Bunny Needs Your Help!

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Dark Bunny​ Needs Your Help! is a new cooperative ARTHUR game.

Based on a video game that appears in an episode of ARTHUR, Dark Bunny brings players into the world of Dark Bunny – with Sue Ellen or Bionic Bunny as a sidekick – on a quest to save the people of The City from the bad energy of Dr. Aardvarkian.

Fly rocket scooters to collect fuel (and snacks!), protect others, and rescue citizens and pets who have been captured by the nefarious ne’er-do-well. This HTML5 game has one- and two-player modes, allowing for cooperation both between the characters AND between players.

So team up with Dark Bunny, Sue Ellen, and Bionic Bunny, and work together to defeat the infamous Dr. Aardvarkian once and for all!

You’ll find the game at: https://pbskids.org/arthur/games/dark-bunny

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Design Squad Global, fun, games, html5

Fidgit Power!

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Design Squad’s latest digital game, Fidgit Power!, has launched!

You can check it out on the Design Squad website or in the PBS Kids Games App, where it is debuted as Game of the Day.

In this HTML5 game, players create and test wind turbines that provide electricity in an environmentally responsible way for the places where our Fidgit characters live, work, learn, and play.

 

Congratulations to the tireless and creative team members who brought this concept to life: producer Louise, developer Dan, designer Nolan, senior producer Melissa, and production assistant Sienna! We also benefitted from support from Eric (developer), Jesse (designer), and Kimberlee (production assistant). A big thank you as well to project leader Marisa and our content advisors, Dr. Chris Whitbeck and Josh Watson!

 

fun, Work in Progress

Spring Finally Sprunging

Good to see we can take advantage of our big windows to grow some plants.

For those playing along at home, we’re growing:

-Parsley and rosemary (as transplants)
-Basil, chives, garlic chives, and salad mix (from seed)
-Thyme, oregano, arugula, scallions, shiso (just started seeds)

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Apps, fun, games, Unity, Work in Progress

First public demo of “Mission: Water”

“Mission: Water” – a Mixed Reality Experience for Middle School Classrooms.

Demo at SMASH 2018.

“Mission: Water” is a pair of linked Microsoft’s Mixed Reality apps offering middle school students a unique experience in the search for water in the solar system. Under development here at WGBH with teams from WGBH Children’s Media and Education and WGBH Digital Services, the project is at a prototyping stage ahead of classroom testing this fall and deployment early next year.

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Using beautiful 3D imagery this app creates an experience designed for the classroom.

The apps include a parallel experience to allow one player at a time to be the explorer (wearing the Mixed Reality head-mounted display) and other another student or students to act as “Mission Control” using desktop computers, guiding the explorer and reviewing data collected during the game.

Players work in tandem to collaborate and review data in order to discuss and decide the optimal places in the solar system to collect water in support of a fictionalized mission.

The apps will be available for free in 2019 through Microsoft’s app store. Supporting content will be available for free through PBS LearningMedia. Generous funding is provided by Microsoft.

Production Team: Dan Hart, Kennedy Bailey, Jeff Bartell, Sophie Calhoun, Elizabeth Walbridge, and Bill Shribman

PBS LearningMedia: Dr. Rachel Connolly, Jake Foster, Caitlin Steer and Pegeen Wright

External Advisor: Dr. Jim Green, Planetary Science Division Director, Office of the Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate 

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fun, Jobs

WGBH seeking animators (2D! 3D! GIFs! AR!) to work on new series

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WGBH is seeking creators with expertise in many forms of animation — 2D cartoons, animated GIFs, 3D animation, motion graphics, game engine filmmaking, augmented reality — to work inside WGBH as Creative Residents on new digital programming in a new studio called Launchpad at WGBH.

Launchpad is currently focused on formats related to science media and aims to reach and inform a diversity of audiences, but animators don’t need to have expertise in science. For each of Launchpad’s Fall 2018 cycles, WGBH will select up to 5 Creative Residents to receive a $2,000 stipend to work on new programs for a duration of 3 weeks.

The next deadlines are Friday September 14, 2018 (for October 2018) and Friday October 12, 2018 (for November 2018).

For more information and application instructions, visit https://www.wgbh.org/foundation/launchpad