mapping for recreation with a location-based game
About the project
What can be more fun than citizen science? Right, doing science while playing a location-based game! This project builds upon Map4Rec 2023, but the story is new. Participants are visitors from another Galaxy, who have traveled to our beautiful planet to learn about its nature and cities, but also people and culture.
8 teams from Almelo, Boekelo, Rijssen, Holten, Tubbergen and Denekamp
co-designed and played a location-based game “Mission Earth 2024”, where they completed a number of quests, ranging from a detective mission to contact with the locals mission, while collecting further data on public spaces for recreation.
Project Goals
- co-create place-based quests and assess the added value of a game in the context of a citizen science campaign with youth
- collect data to understand how temporarily displaced youths perceive and engage with urban nature
- conduct a feasibility study on the actual implementation of youth suggestions for urban improvements
- provide participants with an opportunity to acquire skills in working with geospatial tools and data, as well as transferable skills related to sustainability, leadership, and teamwork
- strengthen the community and raise awareness about the multi-faceted benefits of citizen science with youth
Current Outputs
Mapping for Recreation with a Location-Based Game Project Team. (2025). Fantastic Creatures of Twente and Where to Find Them. Zenodo. link
Data
The project was a lot of fun and often felt like some adventurous quest in the nature.
“Water Rangers” (2022) project participant