MedievalMe, a game in which students do their own research in a mysterious medieval manuscript, can be achieved with augmented reality application. Art historian Sanne Frequin and history teacher Hanneke Tuithof are receiving funding from the National Science Agenda (NWA) to start the project. With the game they want young people to discover the richness of scientific research.
One of the most obscure manuscripts in the KB Library, the national library in The Hague, is the Liber Floridus, written by hand in the 15th century. It is a medieval “encyclopedia” containing, among other things, classical texts, a herbarium (a botanical book) and an animal book (a book of animals). All lyrics are accompanied by hand-drawn images of wild creatures, exotic plants, and a starry sky.
Handwriting comes to you through augmented reality
In a serious game MedievalMe, high school students conduct a search for Liber Floridus. They don’t have to go to the Koninklijke bookstore in The Hague for this. Handwriting comes to them: they can watch it in class, with an augmented reality app on their phone.
The goal of the game is to show students that science is not one-sided. Only by working together from different scientific disciplines, for example biology, art history and biology, can the challenges in the game be solved.
Cooperation is necessary
Project lead Sanne Frequin, art historian at Utrecht University, explains: “High school students still often associate science with lab coats and Erlenmeyer flasks. We think it is important to show how we humanities scientists conduct research. In our daily practice, we often collaborate with Other science disciplines. In the game, players experience that such cooperation is not only great fun, but also of great importance for solving scientific problems. The nice thing about this game is that we develop it with students. By listening to their desires and interests, we create a game that relates to their experience This way we encourage them for scientific research. The game will be available to all high school students from September 2023.”
Team
For this project, the KB, The Hague National Library, the University of Utrecht and the design agency Doyle combine to make heritage accessible to a young audience in an innovative way and to introduce students to interdisciplinary scientific research in a playful way. It will be developed in close cooperation with students, teachers from secondary education, researchers and students from Utrecht University. The researchers will receive €150,000 for the project.
All projects awarded
Nine science communication projects have received NWA funding, with the goal of making science accessible to a broad audience. UMC Utrecht participates as a partner in one of these projects: ADHD plaza: Information about ADHD for and for young people.
