Habitat launches in Canada

It’s Earth Day and the Royal Ontario Museum is launching Habitat in Canada! There will be five new Habitat pins to be found in the museum. Canadian players will be able to trade the local pins they find with other players around the world.

Aaron Philips 

We sat down with Aaron Phillips from the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity to learn a little more about ROM and what they have planned.

Tell us a little about the ROM. How many kids come through a year?

• The Royal Ontario Museum is one of the largest museums in Canada, and rather unique in that we have extensive collections encompassing not just art, nature, or history, but all three under one roof! It’s a little tricky to parse just how many kids come through – but I can say that in 2015-2016, we had 1.1 million visitors at the museum, of which 100,000 were students visiting with their classes. Add to that all the kids who participate in our camp programs, as well as all those who come in with their families through general admissions and membership, and it adds up to A LOT of kids!

What have been some of your most popular exhibitions for kids?

• We’ve found that children enjoy opportunities to interact with our galleries and exhibitions in diverse ways, whether through touchable replica objects, puzzles, costumes or technology. To that end, we have had great success with exhibitions featuring interactives geared towards children (and social media savvy adults) such as our recent Pompeii: In the Shadow of the Volcano and, currently, Out of the Depths: A Blue Whale Story.

What are you doing for Earth Day?

• This Sunday (Apr 23) we’re having a building wide Family Funday program called “Earth Matters”, where we’re bringing in a number of ecology-, environment- and citizen science-oriented organizations to encourage our visitors to take action to better conserve and preserve our planet (which includes introducing them to Habitat the Game, of course!) it will be a great opportunity for visitors of all ages to learn more about environmentally-minded organizations and how they can themselves take action towards greater sustainability.

How will kids be using Habitat in the museum?

• They’ll be using it as a new way to further explore and discover some of the iconic specimens in our biodiversity galleries and exhibitions. I’d also like to think that as they complete challenges, they’ll be thinking about how the sustainability of their actions relates to the biodiversity on display. I hopeful we’ll eventually see us finding ways to leverage some of the additional learning materials developed for classroom settings by adapting it to Canadian curriculum as well.

Why have you chosen Habitat as a partner?

• Biodiversity programmes at the Royal Ontario Museum strive to help our public better understand nature and to prevent its loss through communications, research, citizen science, and community engagement. A very significant portion of our visitors are kids, and engaging them in meaningful discussions about ecology and environmental issues is a major part of our mandate. We can see that the team behind Habitat feel the same, and believe that Habitat will be an excellent addition to the means in which we connect with youth.

How do games and interaction fit in with your gallery?

• Taking inspiration from our close working colleagues in the Hands-On Biodiversity and Discovery galleries, we know that facilitating inquiry-lead, hands-on discovery of our specimens and objects in the Life in Crisis: Schad Gallery of Biodiversity is an absolute must for meaningfully engaging visitors (of all ages).
• Furthermore, over the last few years our gallery has also been proud to support our ROM Game Jam program by hosting the ROM Arcade. The ROM Game Jam sees roughly 100 video game developers invited into the Museum and, working in teams, building a video game inspired by some aspect of our research and collections. Each year, the ROM Arcade is the testing ground for a select few of these games, where visitors/players can critique and share feedback with the developers, collaborating with them on improving the games.

How interested do you think kids are about the environment/climate change?

• In our experience, we’d say “very”! Most children have a deep-seated love of nature, of respect for wild creatures, and wonder at the “endless forms most beautiful” (and weird) that inhabit our world. And they also have very strong feelings about what is “fair”. And so as they become increasingly aware of the various environmental challenges we face as a global society, their desire to do something is strong.

 

New Pin Locations

Here is a table that shows the countries where our 149 pins are currently located.

We are continuing to add locations.

The aim is to create a local/global experience. Kids learn about the species, plants and areas that are local to them and trade their pins with other kids globally.

It’s easy to add more pins so reach out to us on Facebook , Instagram or Twitter and let us know where you would like to explore. Create a Habitat pin scavenger hunt in your neighbourhood!

Pin	Countries
Highland Cow	Scotland
Golden Eagle	Scotland
Red Squirrel	Scotland
Red Deer Stags	Scotland
Scottish Wildcat	Scotland
Nessie	Scotland
Capercaille	Scotland
Pine Marten	Scotland
Osprey	Scotland
The Cobbler	Scotland
Tian Tian	Scotland
Gannet	Scotland
Hen Harrier	Scotland
Northern Lights	Scotland
Stone of Destiny	Scotland
White-Tailed Sea Eagle	Scotland
Standing Stones Circle	Scotland
Thistle	Scotland
Grey Seal	Scotland
Otter	Scotland
Shetland Pony	Scotland
Kangaroo Paw	Australia
Black Swan	Australia
Dolphins	Australia
Quokka	Australia
Grass tree	Australia
Whale Shark	Australia
Numbat	Australia
Western Grey Kangaroo	Australia
Western Blue-tongue Skinks	Australia
Thylacoleo	Australia
Gurrabal	Australia
Clown Fish	Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Papua New Guniea, Solomon Islands
Red Kangaroo	Australia
Fallow Deer	England, Ireland, Iceland
Black Cockatoo	Australia
Bald Eagle	USA, Canada
Manta Ray	USA, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa, Japan
Saltwater croc	Australia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia
Brown Bear	USA, Canada, Russia, China, Sweden, Finland, Norway
Bison	USA
California Sea Lion	USA, Mexico
Dolphins	Australia, USA, Mexico, Guatemala
Tundra, Polar Bear	USA
Sasha, Amur Tiger	USA
Indy, California Sea Lion	USA
Betty, Grizzly Bear	USA
Houdini, King Cobra	USA
Dexter, Magellanic Penguin	USA
Cortez, Red-Ruffed Lemur	USA
Opal, Silvered Leaf Monkey	USA
Tuti, Western Lowland Gorilla	USA
Kenya, White-Throated Bee-eater	USA
Leo, Baby Snow Leopard	USA
Jalak, Bali Mynah	USA
Charlie, California Sea Lion	USA
Dash, Gentoo Penguin	USA
Diver, Scaly-Sided Merganser	USA
Zoe, Snow Leopard	USA
Biru, Red Panda	USA
Sid, Babydool Sheep	USA
Dori, California Sea Lion	USA
Anura, Dart Poison Frog	USA
Binda, Dingo	USA
Drummer, Emu	USA
Kobo, Hamadryas Baboon	USA
Dakota, American Bison	USA
Spangles, Andean Bear	USA
Mable, Hyacinth Macaw	USA
Mags, Pronghorn	USA
Cleo, Puma	USA
Duke, California Sea Lion	USA
Nuka, Pacific Walrus	USA
Jacob, Sea Otter	USA
Ocellated Turkey	Guatemala
King Vulture	Venezuela
Kapok Tree	Brazil
Tapir	Brazil
Jaguar	Guatemala
Leafcutter Ant	Costa Rica
Giant anteater	Honduras
Black howler monkey	Belize
Red-Eyed tree frog	Nicaragua
Amazon River dolphin	Brazil
Green Anaconda	Venezuela
African Elephant	Kenya
Scarlet Macaw	Mexico
Monarch butterfly	Mexico
Ruby-throated hummingbird	Peru
Blue Morpho Butterfly	Costa Rica
Cacao Tree	Ecuador
Banana	Honduras
Tea plant	China
Pineapple	Brazil
Flying fox	Australia
Rainbow lorikeet	Australia
Koala	Australia
Humpback whale	Australia
Crayfish	New Zealand
Silver Fern	New Zealand
White Kiwi	New Zealand
Hihi	New Zealand
Tuatara	New Zealand
NZ Fur Seal	New Zealand
Octopus	New Zealand
Blue Cod	New Zealand
Starfish	New Zealand
Little Blue Penguin	New Zealand
Sasa, Sun Bear	New Zealand
Black Oyster Catcher	New Zealand
Brown Kiwi	New Zealand
Long Finned Eel	New Zealand
Kaka	New Zealand
Kereu	New Zealand
Beaver Mannahatta	USA
Bald Eagle	USA
Black Bear	USA
Puma	USA
River Otter	USA
Kiani, Orangutan	Australia
People’s Climate March	USA
People’s Climate March	USA
Tasmanian Devil	Australia
Giant Panda	China, Hong Kong
Polar Bear	USA, Canada, Russia, Greenland, Norway
Amur tiger	Russia, Korea,  China
King Cobra	India, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
Magellanic penguin	Brazil, Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands
Red Ruffed Lemur	Madagascar
Silvered Leaf Monkey	Malaysia and Borneo
Western lowland gorilla	Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo
White-throated bee-eater	Senegal and Uganda
Baby Snow leopard	Nepal, India, China, Russia, Pakistan
Bali mynah	Indonesia
Gentoo Penguin	Falkland Islands, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand
Scaly-Sided Merganser	South Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Russia
Snow Leopard	Nepal, India, China, Russia, Pakistan
Red Panda	Bhutan, China, Myanma, India, Tibet
Poison Dart Frog	Bolivia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Panama and Hawaii
Dingo	Australia
Emu	Australia
Hamadryas baboon	Jordan,Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Eritrea to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia
Andean Bear	Panama, Venezuela,Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina
Hyacinth Macaw	Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay
Pronghorn	USA, Canada, Mexico
Puma	Canada, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile
Pacific Walrus	USA, Canada, Greenland, Russia
Sea Otter	USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, Mexico
Sun Bear	India, Thailand, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Laos, China

Habitat The Game’s biggest update yet!

Happy New Year Habitaters! We are hitting 2017 with force, starting with our largest and most significant update since the launch of Habitat the Game.

Habitat has always strived to connect our players to nature by encouraging them to get out and explore the world. Yet, we would be lying if we said we had not been inspired by Pokemon Go’s ability to get people outdoors.

That inspiration has led to a revamp of our unique pin system. Until today each pin would only appear in a single location. Now we can spread pins more widely, reaching more players.

Pin locations encourage players to explore their natural environment, from parks to waterways to urban green spaces. Players can collect pins that represent animals, locations or plants in their local areas and learn all about their pin.

These local pins can then be traded with other players from across the planet!

Our unique pin system incorporates exercise, education and gaming in the real world.

This new update combined with our recent surge in player numbers (15,000 in one day!) sets us up for a brilliant 2017.

We look forward to hearing from our players in the coming weeks! Please let us know places you think pins should appear in your neighborhood.

 

 

Letter to Teachers – Habitat and school curriculum

Sometimes the best way to learn about our earth and the species which inhabit this planet is by experiencing it. While HABITAT is essentially a game, it is more importantly a dynamic learning tool with real implications. A game where schools, classes, teachers and individual students and their families can actively participate in exploring, discovering, learning, acting and bringing about positive environmental change.

HABITAT is attuned to the Australian Science Curriculum for students in years K-6 and thereby asks questions about the world in which we live. It nurtures curiosity, offers inquiry problem solving situations and develops a solid foundation of knowledge that students can apply to real life – in particular their own life.

 

Sustainability is an embedded theme in HABITAT and therefore is relevant to all K-6 learning levels. It provides the platform to ascertain our collective and individual impact on the earth’s sustainability. Importantly HABITAT is a comprehensive educational resource that engenders active and environmentally responsible global citizens while being engaging and fun.

Specifically HABITAT is relevant to the Australian Science Curriculum in the following topics:

‘Years K–2 (typically from 5 to 8 years of age)

Curriculum focus: awareness of self and the local world

Unifying ideas:

• Exploration
• Observation
• Order
• Change
• Questioning and speculation

Years 3–6 (typically from 8 to 12 years of age)

Curriculum focus: recognising questions that can be investigated scientifically and investigating them.

Building on the unifying ideas of exploration, observation, order, change, questioning and speculation, the unifying ideas of this age range are:

• Patterns
• Systems
• Relationships
• Evidence and explanations’

Draft Consultation version 1.1.0 Australian Curriculum

ACARA Australian Curriculum Consultation Portal 14/07/2010 6

Classroom syllabus topics relevant to the curriculum can be applied to the learning of:

• Threatened species
• Endangered species
• Animal physical characteristics
• Diet and food consumption
• Behaviour
• Breeding and population
• Habitats and needs
• Geographical regions
• Environment protection
• Conservation
• Sustainability

Authour:

Anne Chesher
Quadrant Productions
Media+Education