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Take Me There®: Greece Interactives

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is renowned for providing extraordinary family learning experiences. In Take Me There®: Greece, families explore so much that the culturally-rich country has to offer – from the language and life there, to food and history, and so much more. When interactivity and innovation are needed, TCM looks for incredible digital storytellers, and Balance is certainly fits that. Balance was commissioned to craft two unique experiences – Speak Some Greek and Help the Turtles for this incredible exhibit.

Help the Turtles Touchscreen

Touch Screen Application

Help the Turtles explores the different ways ARCHELON, a sea turtle rescue center in Greece, works to study and protect the species. In this experience, visitors are invited to become an ARCHELON volunteer, choosing between two tasks - Tagging and Tracking or Counting Eggs.

In Tagging and Tracking, the visitor finds three turtles headed out to sea that are not tagged yet. Tagging and tracking the migration patterns of the sea turtles helps understand their movements and protect them. Visitors select each turtle and drag and drop the different items to complete tagging a turtle, including a number tag, glue, and special satellite trackers that report their migration. They must hurry before the three make it out to sea!

Once the turtles are tagged, they are ready to be tracked. Watch as they travel around the world. Visitors are then invited to click on the three locations to see how the migrations are going. The first turtle makes it to Tunisia without problems, but the other two need more help! One is caught in a net so visitors quickly drag and drop migration markers along the turtle’s migratory path so fisherman can avoid the area. The third turtle was hurt by plastic trash and needs to go to the rescue facility for help! Visitors drag and drop that turtle icon at the ARCHELON facility in Athens, Greece.

In the second activity, visitors are invited to help count nests and eggs to track the sea turtle population. Visitors must track the eggs quickly since the mother turtle is trying to cover her nest with sand. Count as many as you can before they are fully covered! Then, visitors place a nest fence at the nest to protect the eggs and help protect them from predators and anything else that might disturb them.

After each activity, visitors are asked to submit their data from their volunteer work so the rescue center can continue to help protect these endangered turtles.

Speak Some Greek Touchscreen

Touch Screen Application

Rita Mae Brown said “Language is the road map of a culture.” In an exhibit all about the history and life of Greece, the inclusion of the Greek language was vital. But how do you teach a language that has characters that are unlike anything in the English language?

In Speak Some Greek, visitors take a private lesson in Greek. They are introduced to six basic phrases, such as hello, good morning, and thank you. After hearing how it is pronounced, they see the phrase phonetically spelled out. Then, they are asked to try speaking the word.

Using the Google translate API, the app listens for the visitor’s words and carefully checks whether it sounds like the Greek word or not. If successful, you continue on to the next word. If unsuccessful, you can try again or skip. At the end of the six phrases, you receive your score and learn how well you Speak Some Greek.

Analytics are also included that allow the museum to see how well visitors are speaking and if there are words that are too difficult for their demographic.

The Idea

Engage visitors in an incredible exhibit and showcase Greece’s incredible culture through their language and turtle rescue efforts.

Services

You won’t be buried in the sand with our incredible approach to design and development. Balance is ready to show you a whole new world of innovation and creativity, all while staying focused on your story.

The Result

An incredible ride of history and culture that edutained all who visited. Thanks to the virtual tour, even kids at home can explore the exhibit. We are definitely ready to say Take Me There after these interactives!