1. THE PROBLEM

Nowadays, teenagers lack the enthusiasm to explore science and discover the unknown. Most of them find science-related books and articles disengaging and “too hard” to focus on. Instead, they decide to focus on other activities like playing video games as they find them far more entertaining. In fact, on average girls aged 12-15 spend around 9 hours per week gaming (9 hours 18 minutes) while boys of this age spend over 16 hours (16 hours 42 minutes), according to Brendan Sinclair from North American journal (2019). Although the period of teenage years is the most efective time to learn and absob new information from science, the traditional teaching techniques fall short to keep the students entertained. Moreover, according to The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recognizes: [during teenage years], “students have the capacity to engage in scientific and engineering practices as they develop conceptual understandings over time.” We, the Miterra team, decided to address that

2. OUR SOLUTION

TRY IT OUT: https://nasa-hackathon-a07fd.firebaseapp.com/

We created a VR game Miterra (latin for My Earth) for teenagers 10 and above, which will be used to inform, actively educate, inspire to achieve more while entertaining at the same time. In the game, the story settles in the year of 800 A.C. (After Catastrophe). In the event Catastrophe, multiple planets were destroyed in the galaxy. Now, the Intergalactic Space Force, the MITERRA team, travels around the galaxy to save remaining civilizations. The player will have a chance to join the group of scientists of NASA to tackle various problems on each planet to save the galaxy from further extermination.

We’ve taken scenarios of ways a planet can be destroyed, from natural causes to human activity, using data from NASA, to write a story that our users can play through to gain a better understanding of the challenges that we face on planet Earth today and in our future.

3. USER EXPERIENCE

We invite YOU to join the Miterra to find and save planets with sci-fi technology. You will travel through different levels and different planets with different problems to make them habitable. You will have to face planets that are being destroyed by a nuclear meltdown, taken over by harmful algal blossoms, and suffocated by methane. We take you through sci-fi futuristic solutions that will eventually lead back to Earth 2030 (Which is the year the IPCC reported to the UN that if we don't change our habits to save our planet, the damage will be irreversible), when the planet is found to be in crisis mode.

4. CONCEPT OF THE GAME

800 years into the future. The gamer joins the MITERRA team to prevent planets from destruction. The gamer goes on an intergalactic journey from one planet to another (from one level to another level) in order to save those planets. Each planet is facing a different problem, such as a nuclear meltdown or extreme radiation. Each level contains various quizzes, puzzles, creative problems, where the gamer needs to apply problem-solving skills and previous knowledge about scientific phenomena introduced. If the user does not answer the question or wants to learn more about the matter, the game has the “Learn more” feature where we will use NASA data to inform and actively educate while keeping it entertaining for the gamer. The difficulty of levels will increase in order to keep the gamer engaged and advance their knowledge. Moreover, after each saved planet, the gamer will receive a NASA patch to add to their collection.

FINAL CHALLENGE. After completing all levels and saving planets, the gamer will learn the truth: all these problems that destroyed planets in the game are actually REAL problems that our Earth is facing right now and are happening simultaneously! Now, the gamer is ready to go back in time and save the Earth before the Catastrophe happened!

The gamer will have their own Earth to take care of, and each day they will have to tackle different problems that can potentially harm our beautiful planet. They will have a chance to propose their creative, innovative solutions, answer multiple quizzes, plant trees, paint roofs, and many other things

Through this challenge, we hope the gamers will transfer the care for the planet from the game to real life and apply all of their obtained knowledge to educate others, raise awareness and make a change and possibly save the world one day!

5. TECH STACK

We built Miterra as a web application with Javascript using A-Frame library. It does a lot of the heavy-lifting, supporting both mobile and desktop and the support of virtual reality glasses. It is hosted on firebase for quick and easy access with the need for installation.

6. Product current state

• Currently 3 of the planets ready to interact with and visit.
• The game is ready for both mobile and desktop.
• Planets move in different speeds representing the rotational speeds of each plant in our solar system
• Quizzes for each planet are still being developed to add more interactivity for the

7. Plans for the future

• Making the earth into a Tamagochi pet that you have to take care of over time
• Having better animation to explain a particular in a more engaging and explicit way.

References:

https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/Methane-Origin-Instrument-MOI-Methane-Isotope-and-/wcak-uvj8

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2785/unexpected-future-boost-of-methane-possible-from-arctic-permafrost/

https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2577/detergent-molecules-may-drive-recent-methane-changes/

https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MY1DMM_CHLORA

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/19/archives/magnet...

https://medium.com/mytake/understanding-climate-ch...

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Methane...

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-plane...

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-hel...

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/researc...