Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Next step
I haven't forgotten about my other project ideas. Right now, I'm looking forward to the class' feedback. I want to choose one of my ideas and actually start thinking about the visual language. I don't feel comfortable thinking about the content of an idea until I've picked one. I've gone through each one. I see how there are challenges with each of them and some interest me more than others. I find it hard to storyboard each idea using drawings, even though I used to draw a lot. I'm much more comfortable using words now. Since my ideas are based on storytelling, verbal role playing and decision making, they don't make very interesting drawings so my storyboard for the presentation is mostly step by step written explanation. But I did find it very helpful to clarify my ideas (maybe because I used a big colourful felt pen and a huge sketch book) and I saw a lot of the holes in my ideas. I know that tomorrow, the class will see even more holes which will help me decide the best way of proceeding.
Burns Bog information
I've got some more information from Manpreet Nigah, who is the education coordinater at the Burns Bog Conservation Society. She told me that they do displays at community events and festivals and that one is happening Oct.21 and 23. I think it would be really interesting to check this out.
Also, she told me that they have "Burns Bog: A comprehensive guide", a teacher's guide to Burns Bog (which is under review she said), and some activity booklets for kids which are based on the animal characters in the bog. I want to look at these and find out how the effective these tools are. Are they interesting? Are they informative? Clear? Organized? Fun?
Also, she told me that they have "Burns Bog: A comprehensive guide", a teacher's guide to Burns Bog (which is under review she said), and some activity booklets for kids which are based on the animal characters in the bog. I want to look at these and find out how the effective these tools are. Are they interesting? Are they informative? Clear? Organized? Fun?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Why Burns Bog?
This is the reason I want to create a kid friendly Burns Bog society. It should be fun and friendly so that kids will want to get involved. Right now, the website (and educational material) are very serious and elegant. It doesn't translate to a young audience.
Other Problems and Changes
The challenges with my role playing game book would be my age group. I know that an 8 year old boy already likes role playing, but a 6 year old might not be able to follow the story. Although 6 year olds do play role playing games when they play with dolls and action figures.
I would use Dungeons and Dragon as a guide to creating this game. They use stats. The stats for my game could be the needs of the animal or plant. For example, if the character was a bear, they would need 5/5 water, Health (could be effected by garbage and pollution), 5/5 salmon (which could be jeopardized), etc. And stats will change throughout the story. The parent or child could keep track of the stats, depending on the child's interest level and age.
I would use Dungeons and Dragon as a guide to creating this game. They use stats. The stats for my game could be the needs of the animal or plant. For example, if the character was a bear, they would need 5/5 water, Health (could be effected by garbage and pollution), 5/5 salmon (which could be jeopardized), etc. And stats will change throughout the story. The parent or child could keep track of the stats, depending on the child's interest level and age.
Problems and changes
I saw that their are some challenges with these ideas.
With my observation logbook idea, it would make more sense to do this in a classroom instead of in a home, because kids don't focus on these kinds of activities unless they are forced to in school. At home, kids like to watch tv, play on the computer, play barbies, play dress up and be read storybooks. This is what I found while babysitting a 6 (girl) and 8 year old (boy).
So it would need to be in school, probably. I thought the kids could go on fieldtrips (to the bog perhaps) and observe a certain tree or plant throughout a school year. The school would have to be close to a forest or the bog. My elementary school was very close to the bog, but we never went their to learn about nature.
This project would be about understanding and appreciatig nature. It wouldn't actually change people's behaviours, just their attitudes a bit. Hopefully, they would be inspired to grow more things and to love nature. Maybe this would be a good activity to facilitate other environmental learning. Watching things grow is fun...
With my observation logbook idea, it would make more sense to do this in a classroom instead of in a home, because kids don't focus on these kinds of activities unless they are forced to in school. At home, kids like to watch tv, play on the computer, play barbies, play dress up and be read storybooks. This is what I found while babysitting a 6 (girl) and 8 year old (boy).
So it would need to be in school, probably. I thought the kids could go on fieldtrips (to the bog perhaps) and observe a certain tree or plant throughout a school year. The school would have to be close to a forest or the bog. My elementary school was very close to the bog, but we never went their to learn about nature.
This project would be about understanding and appreciatig nature. It wouldn't actually change people's behaviours, just their attitudes a bit. Hopefully, they would be inspired to grow more things and to love nature. Maybe this would be a good activity to facilitate other environmental learning. Watching things grow is fun...
Validation!
I went through my top four ideas:
1. Creating a rebranding campaign for the Burns Bog society geared for kids, similar to how David Suzuki has one website for adults and one for kids. The website for kids is very friendly, colourful and animated. I'm thinking I could redesign the logo and create kid friendly educational tools (I could take one of the ideas below and use Burns Bog as a case study).
2. Create a game where a parent would become a storyteller/game master. That adult would read out the story and the child or children would become characters that would make decisions in the story. The book would be nonlinear and might include a board game, as the character moves through the story. The focus of the story would be explaining an environmental system such as the bog. Characters could be a plant or and animal or even an element (What's the role of water in the bog? It gets filtered... it feeds plants and animals... it gets polluted). Kids would start to understand how these tings work and they would have fun playing a role playing game. The story would be different every time.
3. Create a classroom activity book that can be used as a journal to record all of the observations a child has as a plant he/she planted grows. It could be an evergreen tree that they could replant outside or it could be a bean sprout that grows very quickly or it could be something edible that could become part of a meal. Seeds would be included. A recipe would be included if it was an edible plant. Kids could start to understand how things grow. They would feel responsible for the little plant.
4. This is the one project that couldn't be connected to Burns Bog (it stands alone.). Daily habits like turning lights off, using less water, and creating less garbage, are things that people don't feel motivated to change because they don't think about it. If a family had a communal board where each person (adults and children) write down their daily habits, like how many seconds of running the tap do they use in a day, how many pieces of garbage, how many appliances do they use, how many lights do they have on at one time... And then they could swap with someone else in the family and try to improve the amount of electricity, water and garbage that is used. So they would take the challenge of 5 pieces of garbage, 2 appliances, etc. and then they would beat it. It would become a bit of a competition. This could become a global swapping game if it was put onto a website. People could try to use the same amount of energy and water as people from around the world.
1. Creating a rebranding campaign for the Burns Bog society geared for kids, similar to how David Suzuki has one website for adults and one for kids. The website for kids is very friendly, colourful and animated. I'm thinking I could redesign the logo and create kid friendly educational tools (I could take one of the ideas below and use Burns Bog as a case study).
2. Create a game where a parent would become a storyteller/game master. That adult would read out the story and the child or children would become characters that would make decisions in the story. The book would be nonlinear and might include a board game, as the character moves through the story. The focus of the story would be explaining an environmental system such as the bog. Characters could be a plant or and animal or even an element (What's the role of water in the bog? It gets filtered... it feeds plants and animals... it gets polluted). Kids would start to understand how these tings work and they would have fun playing a role playing game. The story would be different every time.
3. Create a classroom activity book that can be used as a journal to record all of the observations a child has as a plant he/she planted grows. It could be an evergreen tree that they could replant outside or it could be a bean sprout that grows very quickly or it could be something edible that could become part of a meal. Seeds would be included. A recipe would be included if it was an edible plant. Kids could start to understand how things grow. They would feel responsible for the little plant.
4. This is the one project that couldn't be connected to Burns Bog (it stands alone.). Daily habits like turning lights off, using less water, and creating less garbage, are things that people don't feel motivated to change because they don't think about it. If a family had a communal board where each person (adults and children) write down their daily habits, like how many seconds of running the tap do they use in a day, how many pieces of garbage, how many appliances do they use, how many lights do they have on at one time... And then they could swap with someone else in the family and try to improve the amount of electricity, water and garbage that is used. So they would take the challenge of 5 pieces of garbage, 2 appliances, etc. and then they would beat it. It would become a bit of a competition. This could become a global swapping game if it was put onto a website. People could try to use the same amount of energy and water as people from around the world.
Next phase
I've contacted the Burns Bog society and plan on meeting them some time this week or next week (depending on how I can fit it into my schedule). I noticed on their website that they have research material about Burns Bog that is open to the public so I want to take a look at that and also talk to the education coordinator about their educational programs for elementary school children. She might have some insight into how to teach kids about the environment. I'm hoping she might also have examples of educational material like booklets, books and maybe activities that they do when they take people on nature walks.
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