UnderwaterAdventure!

To get the free interactive markers from Reimagine Well, please email us at info@reimaginewell.com. Healthcare by Design is a yearly course offered at the California Institute of The Arts (CalArts) made up of multidisciplinary students in pursuit of creating an innovative, interdisciplinary pilot project concept for a partner hospital. This year, CalArts instructor Roger Holzberg partnered with Debbie Wagers MHA, CCLS, in creating a pilot for Boys Town National Research Hospital to help motivate young patients to increase physical mobility prior to discharge. With the benefit of a fellowship grant from CalArts, we have created an immersive experience exploring both physical and virtual spaces, the chosen medium being Augmented Reality (AR) on the platform iOS and iPad as this would allow ease of accessibility for children already familiar with the interface as well as a sanitizable device. This experience uses AR technology to introduce educational concepts including Paleontology, Marine Biology, and Space Sciences. The series of games are divided into three levels of difficulty by Pre-Readers (2-4 y/o.), Early Readers (5-9 y/o.), to Active Readers (9-12 y/o). Throughout the game, players will be challenged to move through hospital spaces to find various images (markers) and with this, the combination of the iPad camera and markers will manifest digitally animated recreations of various animals and objects-- from astronauts to pterodactyls. Takeaways from this experience include not only encouragement of mobility and physical activity, but educational ideas (most notably History and STEM). The themes of Prehistoric Pasts, Underwater Adventure, and Interstellar Odyssey represent the past, present, and future of innovation and ingenuity. This project is made hoping that players will become inspired with imagination no matter the circumstance of their health or environment.