Last minute additions

I decided that I wanted to look a little bit more in-depth at what the interface for the program in my interactive zone would look like. I have come up with a mock screen-shot.

The children would be given a blank area of land (or potentially, a model of Brisbane City?!) to which they would be able to add their own additions. The would be able to choose from 8 different categories for a middle primary age student. These are: trees and plants, vehicles and transportation + humans, fauna, small scale buildings (houses/schools etc), agricultural land, city buildings, power supply, roads and routes and waterways.

By clicking "play city" the program would then be run to assess the success of the city over a 100 year period using some of the parameters such as air quality, water levels, population growth, quality of soil/ soil erosion just to name a few.

By physically having to drag each element into place, the children must actively think about where things go and the layout of the city. For older students, this gives a real learning experience. For younger kids, this is just plain fun! One child might choose to fill the space with hundreds of trees, another might choose to cover it in city skyscrapers.

This space is essentially my historical playscape. It is here that they are engaging in the future/ future planning,  whilst being mindful of the past.

Why do I think it's successful? A) because I want to go there RIGHT NOW. B) my head is filled with thoughts about how to make this program real and successful.