Geotricity

Abstract

This project is in collaboration with the Green Kids’ Museum Kenya, which will be the first interactive children museum in East Africa. The museum will become a place for children of age 6 to 14 to learn, inspire and explore, with sustainability at its core.

The purpose of the project is to propose an interactive design to playfully foster awareness around renewable energy at the Green Kids' Museum Kenya, in specific for children aged 9 to 11 living in the Nairobi metropolitan area.

An effective and engaging way to educate children is by providing a play-based learning experience as it capitalises on the motivational abilities and engagement of play. In order to provide such an experience the target group first needs to be triggered to engage with the installation. Once the children are interested in the installation they need to be able to playfully explore, experiment and reflect on the implementation of renewable energy. After which the children will leave the installation with a sense of pride, due to the gained learning experience.

To support the play-based learning journey and to ensure that an exhibition is engaging for children, 12 guidelines have been developed, based on a creative session with children, interviews with stakeholders, museum visits and literature review. Each guideline corresponds with an underlying need of children: support children with different interests, give children the feeling that they are in control, allow children to take a break to reflect on their experience, enable discovery, emphasise the feeling of fellowship, challenge the abilities of the children, provide a clear and simple introduction, allow children to take risks, trigger their senses, reflect everyday life within the installation, utilise humour and create an aesthetically pleasing experience.

The guidelines formed the basis for developing the design Geotricity. Geotricity consists of a table with an interactive landscape projected on it. The challenge for the children is to provide energy to the houses on the table. To accomplish this, the children can place elements that represent renewable energy power plants. Placing an element causes the projection to change accordingly. If a power plant is placed in a correct position, the lights in the corresponding houses are turned on. Through exploration, experimentation and reflection the child will learn about the implementation of the different renewable energy power plants.

Based on an evaluation test with Dutch children at the age of 10, it appears that the concept is experienced as engaging and provides children the opportunity to playfully explore and experiment with the applicability of power plants. Once they properly positioned an element and made a house light up, the children felt a sense of pride.

Further research needs to be conducted to establish if the design has the same impact on the target group of children aged 9 to 11 living in the Nairobi metropolitan area and to determine whether the experience has the desired educational impact.