The Science Museum in London offers both in-museum games as well as games through its app. One example, the museum offers a game that allows users to design and test their own space rover (Science Museum, 2015).
In an interview, the head of New Media at the Science Museum Dave Pattern commented that Games needed to have a purpose as well as needing to be fun and that developing games that are successful incorporate fun and learning in such a way that makes the learning elements discrete (Marshal, 2020). The Rugged Rovers programme is an example of discrete learning as it is never explicitly explained to the user that by experiencing an engineers working process from the initial design process, testing and iteration, participants thus learn through a constructivist process, by doing,they are able to construct their own learning (Vygotsky, 1988).
Picture of Rugged Rover - Science Museum:https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/games-and-apps#rugged-rovers
The Rugged Rover is an online game an app that gives students the chane to try their hand at space-age engineering. Participants are able to create a rover design and innovate to solve problems of crossing a challenging alien landscape.
Through the activities made available in this game participants are able to access complex topics and the opportunity for extended outreach. Thus is an example also of how through offering a game a greater range and number of individuals will access, engage and understand the concepts of the engineering lessons.The vital difference from a static exhibition to the use of a game is the level of engagement that a game can provide. Engagement is something that every museum now acknowledges is vital for their survival and success in the ‘new Museology (McCall and Gray, 2014). By giving visitors agency to make decisions, exploratory learning, interaction is maximised. However, it has been found that by using online games the learning experience is extended, both in time and in engagement in comparison to In-museum games which in comparison tend to produce short time and term levels of achievement (Museum Next, 2019).
Picture of MicroRangers, (2020)
In 2015 The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), introduced a mobile gaming app called MicroRangers which was targeted at inviting new visitors into the museum. The app was designed as a gateway for the user to interact through augmented reality with the museum’s collection. The museum had created a downloadable app similar to the commercial version of Pokemon-Go, projecting images of animated characters linked to certain exhibits. The AMNH was thus able to create change in their approach and access for visitors through a game and is an example of a constructivist approach, away from the traditional museology, replacing it with a positivist - behaviourist approach of a new museology ( Recupero et al, 2019). This highlights a change from a collection-centered to an audience-centered focus for a gallery. Changing the expected and directed path for the visitor through an expihition to instead building a collaborative experience through the medium of a game to create a meaningful experience for the app user and museum visitor which values not only the learning experience but also the users ability to have fun and make their own meanings from their museum experience (Hooper-Greenhill, 2004; Simon, 2010).
Animal crossing
The Science Museum Group, as part of its outreach to their established audience and to new participants during the Covid 19 lockdown has made objects from its collection available in game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Users are able to import objects from the museum's collection as part of a curating experience. The Getty Museum first created a tool that allows the uploading of images which in turn can then be applied to surfaces in the players museum / gallery. By using QR codes there is the ability to scan specific objects directly into the game. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/create-science-museum-in-animal-crossing/
occupy white walls
As some galleries shut their doors during the Covid-19 as for now many find themselves self-isolating ,this game is likely to provide some well-timed creative relief. i can link this game to a Constructivism (Vygotsky,1980) type game because The gaming concept combines elements of world building and virtual Instagram-like curatorship, allowing the player to learn from what they are provide or recognises with the art work.
the image below is show what i was able to build with in the game that is provided.
