Want to connect with nature these holidays? There’s an App for that!
Download the free QuestaGame App to learn more about nature in our region
Playing games can have a serious side as members of Cooloola Coastcare are finding as they download a game onto their mobile phones and head out into nature to “play”.
QuestaGame is a mobile phone game that gets players exploring outdoors to discover and learn about nature and help map biodiversity for scientific research and conservation at the same time.
QuestaGame is for all ages – it’s a great family activity. Players find an interesting bird, insect, reptile, plant, fungi or any living thing that’s in the wild. Then they take a photo and submit the sighting of it.
You can either take a new photo directly within the game, or you can upload an existing photo from your device’s gallery as long as the photo is less than two weeks old.
Join quests, earn ‘gold’, buy supplies, gain levels, build your collection, join a clan, conquer territories, move up the leaderboard and become one of the great adventurers of all time.
Players learning about nature while they play. Whether it’s in your backyard, in a local park, on a hiking trail or on the beach, there are wild things to be found everywhere. You get additional points for identifying your sightings but don’t worry if you aren’t as knowledgeable as Sir David Attenborough yet, he had to start somewhere.
Submit your sightings and receive identifications, expert feedback – plus a gold reward! The more you play, the more you’ll learn with the help of the game’s online experts. QuestaGame is connected with thousands of experts and uses collective intelligence and machine learning to get accurate results.
When you play, you’re learning about taxonomy, the systematic classification of organisms. QuestaGame players have earned over 8600 levels of expertise (each level requires greater proficiency in identifying species).
So are they just playing or is it “real” Science?
All sightings are automatically geo-tagged with location, date, time and submitted (with your permission) to Australia’s national database or if you are overseas, to that country’s biodiversity database. So you can not only map your conquests, but also help scientists, researchers and planners record and protect your region’s biodiversity while you play.
QuestaGame players have found new species, including spiders, moths, flies.
They’ve found species in new locations, which is very important for research and biosecurity. One QuestaGamer has had a spider named after him.
Wait! There’s more…
Behind the game is the Bio Expertise Engine. Players, enthusiasts and experts log in to help identify and verify sightings. They earn gold that can be cashed out for real money in the form of donations to QuestaGame’s conservation partners and, yes, Cooloola Coastcare is registered and can accept your donations. It’s also a great way to get more gold to buy equipment needed for quests in the game.
You can download QuestaGame on the Android Play Store of the Apple App Store. Visit the website: https://questagame.com/
Cooloola Coastcare invites you to join our Cooloola Coastcarers Clan. Go to the menu in the App and select Clans. Search for Cooloola Coastcarers and join.
Learn how to play QuestaGame on Wednesday, June 13 at 3.30pm at the Rainbow Beach Library. Bring your phone, a hat and water bottle. Download the free QuestaGame App from the Play Store (Android) of (iPhone) App Store before you come. Kids welcome.
For more information contact Lindy Orwin, Coordinator, Cooloola Coastcare 0478 039 322
