Category: html5

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

New Stuff for NASA

Our varied efforts for the NASA-funded Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms project have been newly added to PBS Learning Media.

We have a charming interactive story with Peep:

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A fun shadows and light game with Ruff:

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A cool, 3D Earth for an interactive, shadows exploration:

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And an interactive tool that lets you map the scale of the solar system to any point on the map:

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What a great team! Lizzy, Dan, Gentry, Jeff, Kennedy, Colin, Becca, Kal, Marnie, Jim and Bill. Thanks also, as always, to Pegeen, Rachel, Caitlin, Paula, Anne, Jake and the many others in the Education group.

And what a great legal notice! The material contained in this product is based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award No. NNX16AD71A. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 

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games, html5, Plum Landing

Wild City Search

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The city is full of nature—you just have to know where to look! In the PLUM LANDING HTML5 game, Wild City Search, kids move around a virtual city block, interacting with natural and man-made elements. They can pick up trash, help a rabbit build a nest, create puddles by making it rain—and much more! 

Each interaction is rewarded with a seed, which kids can plant and tend in a virtual rooftop garden. As time goes by, day changes to night and back to day, plants grow, animals move around, and new interactions become possible.

It’s available now on pbskids.org and the PBS Kids Games App. Try it out – what city nature can you find? 

Design Squad Global, games, html5

Fidgits to the Rescue

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Today the Design Squad team launched our latest game: Fidgits to the Rescue! Players step into the role of first responders as they design ways to deliver emergency supplies to our Fidgit characters after a natural disaster.

(Also coming soon to the PBS KIDS Games App!)

A BIG thanks to the incredibly creative & dedicated team who made this happen: on development, Kal; Stefan and Tara on design; Louise and Lizzy for production support; and project leader, Marisa. And this awesome team is led by Melissa. 

 

html5, Plum Landing

Plum Fun for Earth Day

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Nature Changer – Plum’s biggest game yet! Play as 30 different animals (from grasshopper to shark!) and customize game mechanics like speed, number of predators, and goals for an almost infinite amount of combinations

Plum’s Creature Connector, a series of globetrotting ecosystem puzzles inspired by “escape room” adventure games 

Thank you to Melissa as producer, devs Kit and Kal; Tara and Stefan on design; Bill, Louise, and Allison for production support; and our project leader, Marisa. 

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Design Squad Global, games, html5, Published Work, Research

Flood! And More!

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DESIGN SQUAD, the Emmy Award-winning PBS KIDS website, launched DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL during National Engineers Week, on Global Day, February 24th, with a rebranding of the website to promote the project’s new global focus and the launch of two new features. The new game, DON’T FLOOD THE FIDGITS!, challenges kids to build a safe, dry city for its fictional Fidgit characters. The game also is now featured in the PBS KIDS virtual world, Kart Kingdom with Design Squad-themed Karts:

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Also joining the site is a new interactive map feature that lets kids see designs submitted from other kids around the world. 62 countries represented so far!

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“Both features reinforce DESIGN SQUAD’s expanded focus on global engineering and cross-cultural understanding,” says Senior Digital Producer Melissa Carlson, “and the game is a fun and engaging way for kids to practice their design process skills while exploring an issue of global significance.”

To mark the launch locally, over 200 youth from the YMCA, Science Club for Girls, and Big Brothers and Big Sisters Mentoring Program participated in a DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL engineering activity Seismic Shake-Up, that challenges kids to design structures that can survive an earthquake. “This was a great opportunity for us to partner with local organizations that are seeking STEM curriculum for their day-to-day out-of-school programming,” says Outreach Project Director, Saranya Sathananthan. “The staff and volunteers were thrilled to see participants so engaged and proud of the sturdy creations they built.” 

Special thanks to the tech leads on these features, Kal Gieber and Jay Thompson, to Tara Taylor and Stefan Mallette for their designs, to Bill Shribman for digital support, and our project leader, Marisa Wolsky.