700013Proof of market - advanced educational gamingClosedGRD Proof of MarketInnovate UKThe Bamzooki ‘Zook kit’ is a digital authoring tool that enables the construction of animated creatures that compete with their creators against other users in a mixed reality virtual environment. The Bamzooki CBBC TV gameshow is a hugely popular UK TV show – winning The International Prix Jeunesse and receiving a BAFTA nomination. Our proposal is to study extending the existing toolset and user interface in order to enable small teams within a classroom to design, create and compete with one another in real time mixed reality contests, perhaps several times in any lesson. As the design of the creatures is based on real engineering and real physics such a platform will facilitate several beneficial aims. First the social aspects of practical team building can be developed in an environment with immediate and iterative impact. Second the ability to experience the results of the design process and the competition will help give students an intuitive feel for aspects of real world physics and engineering – an area sadly lacking in the modern world. Third, by careful design of classroom exercises, it will be possible to demonstrate subject material and encourage social development in a constructive yet competitive environment. These ideas are extensions of studies undertaken in connection with the CBBC Bamzooki gameshow, Newport LEA ‘Bamzooki and e-learning’ and Heriot Watt University engineering. The focus of the project will be on establishing commercial models that would underwrite the development and extension of the toolset. Whilst there are clear educational benefits in the provision of digital content creation and creator participation tools. These benefits do not align with conventional consumer gaming nor do the fall within the current remit of educational funding.