Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Date of latest update: 2023-11-11

Description

Description (EN):

Zoos are important institutions of preserving the natural heritage of the CB region - protecting and preserving endangered species and at the same time increasing the environmental awareness. At the moment, the use of mobile technologies for learning by visitors of the zoos is very traditional, mainly providing static information. There is an active cooperation network between the zoos of the CB region, but at the moment it is limited mainly on exchanging animals and conducting joint research. Therefore the main objective of the current project is to integrate the zoos of the CB region into joint tourist attraction through developing and implementing a cross-border service package for creative adventure learning with mobile devices. It consists of a set of online game-based learning tools and related apps for mobile devices. The service package is innovative, because: 1) the visitors of the zoos are not treated as passive learners, they participate in active knowledge creation through designing different gamified assignments e.g. memory puzzles, video/photo telling assignments, quizzes etc.; 2) these assignments can be then compiled into outdoor learning games and used for setting up the challenges to other visitors; 3) the visitors can arrange tournaments and competitions also with visitors of partner zoos in another country; 4) the achievements of the players will be awarded by Open Badges in all 3 zoos. In the current project the service package will be designed, developed, piloted among 100 visitors of the zoos and jointly marketed by the 3 zoos of the CB region. In the dissemination phase the service package will be also introduced to other zoos of the region. The SmartZoo mobile learning service provides a reason for visitors to return to zoo several times a year and visit several zoos in one year. Thus, the SmartZoo enhances both the environmental awareness and economical growth of the CB region.

Achievements (EN):

During the project run-time a joint tourist attraction was designed and developed - a cross-border service package of creative adventure learning with mobile devices - SmartZoos. The SmartZoos service package allows zoo visitors to play location-based games in all partner zoos (Helsinki Zoo, Tallinn Zoo, Skansen). The service package has received a positive feedback from the users (see report 1 and 2) and has a potential to turn the zoo visits more interesting and attractive, inviting the zoo guests to continue their games in other zoos of the Central Baltic region. We can report that the service package has currently registered 703 users (although the games can be played without registering) with different games played around 2200 times. The project’s main impact is related to education. The zoo partners use the SmartZoos service package for educational purposes (both for preplanned activities and for a random visitor). For zoo education centres the SmartZoos service package provides an option to make their training programmes more interesting and engaging for children as well as for their parents. In addition, the SmartZoos project created a stronger link between three zoos, mainly on the level of education and training programmes. SmartZoos service package: https://smartzoos.eu/

Website: http://centralbaltic.eu/

Expected Results (EN): R2.1. More sustainable joint natural and cultural heritage based tourist attractions

Expected Outputs (EN):

The main result of the current project is a sustainable joint tourist attraction - a cross-border service package for creative adventure learning in 3 zoos of the Central Baltic region (the SmartZoos service package). Through it the visitors can participate in creative and collaborative knowledge building and get gamified zoo adventures: 1) they can participate in at least 4 types of location-based interactive assignments: quizzes, crossword and memory puzzles, augmented reality assignments and video/photo story telling assignments;2) they can create their own assignments and challenge other visitors in the same or in another zoo (e.g. the visitor of Skansen Zoo can challenge visitor of Helsinki Zoo);3) they can use online environment for composing and conducting location-based GPS adventure games, challenges and tournaments that utilise all these different types of interactive assignments;4) their achievements will be awarded (using Mozilla Open Badges Framework).During the project the service package will be designed, developed, piloted among 100 visitors of the zoos and jointly marketed by 3 zoos (in EST, SWE and FI). During the project the increase of the visitors can be ~6000 visitors. 3 years after the project ends it can be already 50 000 visitors, because the SZ service package gives the visitors reason to revisit the zoos more often.The projects main result clearly contributes to achieving the Programmes overall result indicator no. 2.1 because: 1) the zoos are important parties of preserving the natural heritage of the Central Baltic region ;2) the project is focused on developing and implementing a joint tourist attraction ( the SmartZoos service package) which can be cross-used in different zoos of the region;3) the service package is sustainable because it will stay in use in all 3 partner zoos after the project ends and work will be done in order to introduce it also to other zoos of the region (open source strategy used)

Thematic information

Cultural heritage and arts Tourism

Specific Objective: Natural and cultural resources developed into sustainable tourist attractions

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06c) Conserving, protecting, promoting and developing natural and cultural heritage

Partners (5)

Lead Partner: Tallinna Ülikool

Department: Centre for Educational Technology

Address: Narva maantee 25, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.tlu.ee

Total budget: EUR 236 192.78

ERDF budget: EUR 195 780.20

Södertörns högskola

Name: Södertörns högskola

Department: School of Natural Science, Technology and Environmental Studies

Address: Alfred Nobels allé 7, 141 89 Huddinge, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.sh.se

Total budget: EUR 143 876.00

ERDF budget: EUR 107 907.00

Skansen

Name: Skansen

Department: Department of Zoology

Address: Skansen Foundation P.O box 27807, 11593 Stockholm, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.skansen.se

Total budget: EUR 119 479.00

ERDF budget: EUR 89 609.25

Tallinna Loomaaed

Name: Tallinna Loomaaed

Department: Environmental Education and Public Relations

Address: Ehitajate tee 150, 13517 Tallinn, Estonia

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.tallinnzoo.ee

Total budget: EUR 77 969.60

ERDF budget: EUR 66 274.16

Korkeasaaren eläintarha

Name: Korkeasaaren eläintarha

Department: Marketing, customer service and environmental education

Address: PO Box 4600, 99 City of Helsinki, Finland

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.korkeasaari.fi

Total budget: EUR 50 162.50

ERDF budget: EUR 37 621.88

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Södertörns högskola University College

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Partners and Projects info

Skansen Open-air museum and Zoo

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Partners and Projects info

Tallinn Zoological Gardens

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Partners and Projects info

Helsinki Zoo

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Partners and Projects info

Tallinn University

Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Project acronym: SmartZoos

Project start date: 2015-09-01

Project end date: 2018-08-31

Project status: closed

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 627 679.88

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 497 192.48

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 497 192.48.

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG V-A Finland - Estonia - Latvia - Sweden (Central Baltic)

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-11-11

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

137 / 137 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

663 / 663 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://centralbaltic.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-11-08, 2023-01-12 and 2024-03-08.

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Cross-border services for creative adventure learning in the zoos of the Central Baltic Region

Description

Thematic information

Partners (5)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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