The Great Fen is a very special place for wildlife to live and for people to visit. Children will get the chance to hunt for hidden treasures, complete puzzles and challenges

Source: iOS description / Image: Michelle Gabriel CC BY-NC 2.0

Useful information

Download: iOS 5.1.1 (36.1MB)

Price: free

Language: English

Runs offline: yes

Last update: iOS 14/09/2016 (v. 1.0.1)

Website of the developer: Creativalley / Wildlife Trust

Description

Great Fen Quest is a game for children between 5 and 10 years (as the Creativalley website points out) that aims to publicize the wild animals and plants that can be found in the Great Fen, a wetland south of Peterborough (UK) in which is running a restoration project to connect several national nature reserves, such as Woodwalton Fen or Holme Fen.

The game has as protagonists 4 common animal species of this swampy area: Newton, the great crested newt; Verity, the watervole; Luna, the dragonfly; and Swoops, the marsh harrier. To advance and unlock the different phases of the game, the user must complete various challenges, thanks to which the animals of the Great Fen will obtain the necessary ingredients to make a cake. Thus, the different characters invite the user of the application to solve puzzles, hunt watervoles or demonstrate the flying skills with Luna, the dragonfly.

In addition, the app also incorporates other challenges such as finding small treasures, obtaining photographs of the most characteristic species in the area or identifying milestones and constructions.

Also and with an educational objective, the application incorporates a striking or curious aspect of each species, such as, for example, the use that the real kite makes of its tail, using it like a rudder or the speed that hare reaches in race (up to 72 km/h).

 

More information

Great Fen Quest – Educational app (from this link you can also download an executable version for Windows)

Images: Screenshots 19/06/2017. © Creativalley/Wildlife Trust

Rating
4

Analysis

The Great Fen restoration project, in the vicinity of Peterborough, a city with almost 200,000 inhabitants, is an ambitious initiative that began in the late 1990s, setting a time horizon of 50 years for the implementation of all proposed actions. However, the work done so far and the institutional support received has already enabled to reach the main goals initially set, as project web notes. In addition to the restoration of natural habitats, the creation of ecological corridors and the enhancement of local architectural and ethnological heritage, another goal of this initiative is to turn Great Fen into an open-air classroom to develop activities related to environmental education.

One of the actions developed in this framework is the creation of the app Great Fen Quest, an application that allows children to know some of the curiosities of the fauna and flora of this area of the UK. The games, with illustrations created by Darryl Flicking, Also enable the development of skills related to coordination of movements, retention of information or memory. The result, as a whole, is an attractive tool in which dynamics of gamification acquire a special importance to bring children closer to nature.

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Técnico de medio ambiente, community manager y content curator especializada en temas de medioambiente - Environmental technician, community manager and content curator specialised in environmental issues