Nature Heroes vs Toggle Lab AR

Nature Heroes is a joint UNICEF/UNDP project designed to help youth in Barbados become more aware of the environmental issues around them. Players will be taken on a climate action learning adventure that encourages sustainable, responsible and meaningful real-life practices against climate change within their communities. Nature Heroes is a virtual simulation game that has three stages. Merging virtual reality with real-life action, users will be able to progress to the new stages in the game through participation in real world climate-related activities. Players will take action to improve and take care of the environment of the game’s avatar – a turtle, and gain points and compete with other players along the way. The world of Nature Heroes is a small contained island similar to the island of Barbados in the Caribbean, that deals with environmental challenges similar to the real world. Specifically, they have issues revolving around littering, deforestation and lack of awareness of environmental issues by the island’s humans. The island is suffering under its human inhabitants.They are damaging the environment and it is hard for animals to thrive on the island. A hummingbird called Hum has grown concerned for the island and wants to change things. It’s just that Hum normally can’t communicate with humans. Luckily, Hum finds our player. A special person who can communicate with him. Finally, something can be done… Together with Hum, it is now up to the player to help preserve the island’s environment and its animals. The game features three distinct locations on the island; The Beach,The Gully and The Town. Nature Heroes is inspired by the landscape and culture of Barbados with a built-in tutorial that provides all the information necessary to play.

Many people want to make a difference when it comes to climate change. But what can one person do? Without a way to make sense of the complexity, it’s easy to feel disempowered and shut down. Other people think the best thing to do is “wait & see”. They assume from climate change can be fixed quickly. But, if you know how a bathtub works, you know better. Part one- THINK LIKE A BATHTUB is a fun, interactive AR App designed as a hands-on educational tool to engage students in one of four key shapes of climate change — a bathtub. Using the app, the students first engage in thought experiments around our current rates of global warming pollution, e.g., humans are putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at about twice the rate that natural processes are removing them. Students are then able to use the app to demonstrate their understanding with their peers and adults. The app can be used for both independent learning and in a classroom setting and can be seamlessly integrated into curriculum and used as a form of assessment. Related tools include a 3-minute video, hands-on activities and large group experiential game. www.togglelab.com Onsite reference: https://togglelab.com/thinklikeabathtub/? For related research see: “Bathtub Dynamics” http://web.mit.edu/jsterman/www/Bathtub.pdf “Understanding Public Complacency About Climate Change.” https://scripts.mit.edu/~jsterman/docs/Sterman-2007-UnderstandingPublicComplacency.pdf This app is developed and supported by School Fab Lab