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2 minutes to read Posted on Tuesday March 25, 2014

Updated on Monday November 6, 2023

Looking for Ideas and Prototypes about Natural History?

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This is the first of two posts with ideas and possibilities for prototypes to re-use Europeana content. Feel free to use them as inspiration for your entries for our Natural History Education Challenge (open till April 14).

There is also information about the ideation and creation of the pilots developed by Europeana Creative for educational purposes to help you understand the process involved for developing your own digital tool.

Re-use of Natural History Content via Europeana for Educational Purposes

We’re looking for innovative and engaging educational applications relating to natural history content via Europeana (images, texts, sounds, videos). Too broad? Then think about the potential of original content related to collections of butterflies, flowers, beetles, minerals or fossils.

Some samples of the type of content you can re-use for your project proposal.


What could you do with this type of content? In our first co-creation workshop, we were inspired by customised digital magazines following the example of interfaces like Flipboard or personal remixable canvas like Muse-app, or collections of open educational resources such as the ones on iAcademy. We consider these very inspiring examples!

During a brainstorming session, we formulated a product definition and requirements, as well as the relevant business model canvas for digital applications (read the report here).

At the end of this process, we came up with the idea for a museum adventure game and a memory card game for the pilot projects. They are now under development, but here are two short presentations about the products (and some of the work that inspired them):

Adventure Game screencast by Exozet Games
(CC BY-ND Europeana Creative)
.

Diagram and adventure game screencast by Exozet Games
(CC BY-ND Europeana Creative)
.

Memory Game screencast by Semantika
(CC BY-ND Europeana Creative).

Initial idea and memory game screencast by Semantika
(CC BY-ND Europeana Creative).

A Few Other Ideas

Our Natural History Education Co-Creation Workshop threw up a few more ideas. Perhaps you will find something inspiring for your challenge entry.

  • Virtual timelines or exhibitions about species, with comments.
  • A fossil hunting app that takes you through a city, based on geo-location or augmented reality.
  • Or a puzzle where you combine parts of different images from fossils or animals in order to build a new one.

Diagram of a fossil hunting app developed during the co-creation workshop (CC BY-ND Europeana Creative).

Think you can develop an educational prototype based on any of the above ideas? Or do you have a completely different concept for a digital tool help teaching or learning about natural history?

Show us what you’ve got!

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