A pervasive role-playing game for introducing elementary school students to archaeology

Abstract

This paper presents ongoing work on the design and prototyping of a pervasive, role-playing game for elementary school students. The game takes place in a designated space presented as an excavation site, in which students become acquainted with a number of principal roles and tasks taking place in archaeological fieldwork. The educational goals are to introduce students to fundamental archaeology concepts and to inform them about the historical background of a specific site and the discovered artifacts. The game apparatus consists of a mobile application (android), a number of small wireless sensors (beacons), tangible models of the antiquities and simplified prop tools of the archaeological equipment (3D printed). The paper outlines the main design concepts, technologies used and gameplay and reports on a preliminary evaluation.