Treasure hunt in Kozani. A mobile based activity game.

In 2019, I attended an eTwinning learning event with the title “Digital Augmented Stories”. It was about how teachers can integrate augmented reality in their lessons and their projects. I was mainly amazed by the fun interactive element augmented reality adds to the world we see. I couldn’t stop thinking about how exciting it would be to organize a mobile treasure hunt for my students where they would look for clues by scanning buildings,places or landmarks around our town.

          

  There are many commercial, educational and entertainment AR applications which make life’s activities easy and fun. In Google Play store someone can find hundreds of AR applications about home design, fashion, art or tourism.I searched the term “AR treasure hunt” and I had many results as expected, among which was “Treasure Hunt / GPS / QR”. This app was not exactly what I had imagined but it was free, easy to use and with no advertisements.

            The procedure to use this app is quite simple. Enter as a “Game master”, type clues and note down the codes for each clue. Hide the codes in the respective hide outs. Post the game online and get a game code. Give the game code to your students who have already downloaded the app on their devices (mobile or tablet). When the students enter the code, the first clue – question appears. The answer to the clue is a location, they go there where they find a code to enter or a QR code to scan and they unlock the next clue. After answering all the questions, the students reach the final destination and find the treasure.

            I used this mobile-based activity game with my sixth graders. The game needs internet in order to be played. I used my phone as hotspot so as to provide wireless internet to the students who didn’t have mobile data. They were in teams of 3-4 because not all students had mobile phones and I wanted them to cooperate. The first question led to a place in our school. It was: “The year 1912 is over your head” and the students had to go to the central entrance of our school where there is a big marble inscription. There, they found the code for the second clue which led to Kozani’s landmark, the tower clock and so on. All the questions guided children to places or monuments of historic, cultural or social interest. Our last destination was at the open theatre of our town. There, in order to get the treasure (in the last clue), they had to sing the “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles. The treasure was a small bag with little symbolic items I prepared for each student. Finally, we ended up at the stadium of Kozani and stayed there to play and have fun.

            After many months of online learning and home enclosure, students needed more than ever to go outside with their classmates and work as a team. I aim to include this treasure hunt in my end-of-year activities for sixth grade. Additionally, I’m thinking of using this mobile or tablet-based type of game for in school treasure hunts as well.  Treasure hunts promote social interaction, build teamwork, and enable exploration and discovery. Moreover, they give us teachers the opportunity to share a rewarding and fun experience with our students, something we all need, especially in this unprecedented for us COVID era.

 

Despina Batsi

Primary School of CharissiosMoukas, Kozani

http://englishfun.edu.gr/