The Great Ottawa Scavenger Hunt

The rules and our results

While this activity is set for downtown Ottawa, it wouldn't take much to modify it for any major city centre.

Complete as many of the following challenges as possible in the time allotted. Remember to STAY TOGETHER and to gather evidence of your accomplishments along the way. Good luck!

1. Find the most expensive shoe in the Bay. What is its make and what does it cost? Frye boot, $598.
2. What is the last item on the McDonald’s menu? Filet-o-fish.
3. How many restaurants are located inside the central building in the Byward Market? 12.
4. How many different kinds of beavertails does the beavertail stand sell? 10.
5. Get the signature of a person named Jennifer, Carol, Nancy or Mary. No.
6. Find a feather. Yes, but it was attached to a pigeon.
7. Find a penny. No.
8. Find the cats on Parliament Hill (you can ask one of the police officers or security people on the Hill) and take a photo of your group there. No.
9. Find something blue. RBC logo.
10. Find a pop tab. No.
11. What is the volume of the largest jug of maple syrup being sold by a street vendor in the market? No, market wasn’t open during the winter.
12. Find a maple leaf (can be the plant or anything bearing a maple leaf) Snow sculpture.
13. How many different Robert Munsch books are currently being sold at Chapters (i.e. different titles)? 66.
14. In the fiction section at Chapters, find the author whose last name is latest in the alphabet. Who is it? Israel Zanqwill, perfect crime.
15. What is the strangest ornament you can find at the Christmas Shop? Take a picture. No, couldn’t find. May be closed.
16. Get a disposable cup with a company name on it (i.e. Starbucks) and have an employee sign it. No.
17. Get a take-out menu from a restaurant of your choice. Sushi place.
18. Find a free promotional pen (must have a business logo on it). No.
19. Get a newspaper clipping of a women’s event. Canadian Women’s Songbook. Sign.
20. Find a 1980’s coin of any denomination. Dime, 1986.
21. Get a family recipe from a local restaurant. No.
22. Take a photo of an out-of-town licence plate. Quebec.
23. Get a bank deposit envelope. RBC bank.
24. Find out how much it would cost you to fly to New York City on August 2, 2017. (The cheaper, the better!) Include the flight details. $226.00 Ottawa (YOW) – New York City (LGA) Delta 3780 · Economy Class · Canadair RJ 900
25. Find the phone number of a payphone booth. Phone booth picture.
26. How much does it cost for an iced tea at the Lone Star? No.
27. Get a business card from a hair or beauty salon. Yes.
28. Take a picture of a limo. No.
29. Have someone take a picture of your team spelling out a word. No.
30. Get a pair of chopsticks. Yes.
31. How many flavours of ice cream are being sold at the Rocky Mountain Chocolatier store? 16.
32. Take a picture with a person who is over 6 feet tall. No.
33. Take a picture with a person who is being accompanied by at least four children. No.
34. Take a picture of someone from your group walking a stranger’s dog. 50% we found a cute dog wearing a leather jacket and leather boots
35. Find a receipt for something edible. Yes.
36. What two stores sell Giant Microbes? (Hint – one is in the Market and one is in the Rideau Centre.) Miss Tiggy Winkles.
37. Take a picture of something that has the name of one of your group members on it. No.
38. Take a picture of an advertisement for Coke. Done.
39. What is located on the second floor of the main building in the Byward Market? Farmers Market/ vendors.

Final Score: 23/39 = 59%

Narrative

This week I found a scavenger hunt game online called the Great Ottawa Downtown Scavenger Hunt. Originally, it was designed for a Girl Guide group but I thought it had great questions and requirements for anyone to find in the Ottawa Downtown area.

The goal of the scavenger hunt is to locate/complete as many of the tasks on the 40 item list as possible in the Ottawa Downtown area. The rules weren’t very restrictive and only required the groups to stay together (no divide and conquer techniques could be used).

No time requirement was listed in the rules or instructions so we gave ourselves an hour and a half (90 minutes) to complete the scavenger hunt. My partner and I started the scavenger hunt at the Parliament Buildings in downtown Ottawa around 11:00 am and completed as much as we could by 12:30pm. It started to snow heavily when we started the scavenger hunt which made checking the phone and updating our results more difficult. I would recommend doing scavenger hunts during nicer weather (in Canada, May-September).

Assessment Tool

Completed assessment for the scavenger hunt game here.

Blank assessment for the scavenger hunt game here.

I developed a simple rubric to assess the various aspects of the scavenger hunt. I drew primarily from the week 3 readings by Kapp (2012) for this assessment tool but also drew inspiration from my personal definition of a game from week 1. While a number of assessment tools could be used for evaluating games, I decided to use a classic rubric tool. I chose this method after experimenting with a number of other assessment tools (matrix and flowchart) but ended up falling back on a rubric. I decided to use a rubric because it allows the player to easily identify strengths and weaknesses within various elements of the game. According to teachersfirst.com (n.d.), the rubric allows for users evaluating an assignment to quickly know what makes that assignment excellent, mediocre, or in need of improvement (para. 1). This was an important feature for me, as it would allow game designers to quickly see which aspect of the game needs to be completely redesigned, further developed or is working well. Another reason for choosing a rubric is that they provide the user with a clear understanding of what is expected of them, in this case, what the player expects of the game.

At the core, I wanted my assessment tool to be easy to read and make use of visual cues. I chose to incorporate a smiley face system into my assessment tool, along with a color scheme. The sad face and color red means that significant improvements need to be made in that area of the game. The straight face and color yellow means that slight adjustments to that area could strengthen the game. Finally, the smiley face and green color indicates that aspect of the game is strong and that little-to-no changes need to be made to that aspect of the game. I wanted to include a “notes” field at the end of the assessment tool for additional feedback and reflection. This would allow the player to add further detail that could make the game better or to identify components that were missing. This makes my tool reusable with other games, not just the one for which I had developed it.

I decided to use a number of elements described by Kapp (2012) in his book The Gamification of learning and instruction: game-based method and strategies for training and education.

The four elements I chose to focus on for my scavenger hunt assessment tool were: goals, rules, challenge, and engagement.

I chose to include goals as one of the areas of assessment because I think that goals are one of the fundamental elements of creating and playing games. In my assessment I looked at evaluating the effective use of primary goals and secondary goals. Primary goals, according to Kapp (2012), add focus to the game. Without a goal, players are just playing; by adding a goal to play, it becomes a game (Kapp, 2012, p. 28). My assessment tool attempts to explore how well the primary goals are explained to the player, but I have chosen to assess enabling objectives as well. Secondary goals or enabling objectives, according to Kapp, are small incremental steps that allow players to move from one accomplishment to the next (Kapp, 2012, p. 29).

I included rules as an area of assessment because I think rules are a crucial aspect of any game. Without well defined rules, players risk playing the game incorrectly or not completing the task at all. According to Kapp (2012), rules set out the number of players, how to score points, and outline what is allowed. Several authors cite rules as a core feature of games, including Kapp (2012), Michael & Chen (2005), and McGonigal (2011). For this reason, including rules as an area of assessment was important.

Included in my assessment is the evaluation of game challenges, competition and cooperation. According to Kapp (2012), conflict is a challenge that is given to a player to impede them from completing the goal of the game (p. 31). This can be done in a number of ways. One way is through competition with other players. The other is through cooperation with other players against a game element (p. 32). Scavenger hunts are an interesting type of game. Players are working cooperatively (if the rules allow for teams) to find all the items or complete all the challenges on a list. At the same time, players may be competing against each other to find the items or complete the challenges quicker than other players. For that reason I have included both competition and cooperation as areas of assessment.

Finally, I have included engagement as an area of assessment. I decided to include a number of Kapp’s (2012) game elements under this category. I have decided to assess overall use of game mechanics to increase engagement, curve of interest, replay ability, and overall level of fun. I wanted to assess the curve of interest because I think that there are ways to increase player interest as the game goes on. According to Kapp (2012), curve of interest is the “flow or sequence of events that occur over time that maintains the player’s interest” (p. 45). Next week, when we design our own scavenger hunt or treasure hunt, I want to include game mechanics that increase the player's interest over time. I have included replay ability as an area of assessment because this is what allows players to get creative in their problem solving without the fear of failure (Kapp, 2012, p. 48). Replay ability in scavenger hunts could involve adding more items or challenges to complete. When we design our own scavenger hunts, replay ability it something I want to build into my game. Finally, I want to assess the overall fun of the game. People want to play fun games. Without it, a player’s attitude toward a game is negatively impacted.

Identify elements for IS game

Scavenger hunts can be a great way to teach IS in libraries. One particular use for scavenger hunts in the library is to help users identify various services and locations in the library. For example, in an academic library you could ask students to get a photo of themselves with a reference librarian, at the library circulation desk, find books on the topic of political science, the possibilities are truly endless.

In a public library you could ask users to find their favorite DVD from the video section, find an audio book by an author whose last name starts with the letter K, get help finding a book about travel to Australia from a librarian, etc.

The goal of using a scavenger hunt in the library is to ensure students and patrons are finding services and material that they will use during their time at the library. Asking students to document their adventure through photos could add a level of verification that they have completed the various tasks. Offering prizes or adding elements of a race could increase the competition amongst users, increase user interaction, and create a more enjoyable game. Adding in secondary objectives can also give players additional ways to win. For example: what is the craziest travel book you can find, what is the oldest book you can find in the general library collection (not from archives), etc. According the Kapp (2012), secondary objectives can provide users with choices when completing tasks (p. 29). Similarly, by providing users with enabling objectives, it guides users from one goal to the next. In the case of scavenger hunts, this is done by giving players a number of small tasks that lead to a large overall goal, such as completing the scavenger hunt (p. 29).

References

Kapp, K.M. (2012). The Gamification of learning and instruction: game-based method and strategies for training and education. Retrieved from http://discover.sjlibrary.org/iii/encore_sjsu/record/C__Rb5018864

Michael, D. R., and Chen, S.L. (2005). Serious games: Games that educate, train, and inform. Boston: Course Technology.

McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. NY: Penguin Press.

TeachersFirst.com (n.d.). Why Use Rubrics? Retrieved from http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/rubrics/why-use-rubrics.cfm