Flanders Metals Valley becomes a “ResourCity app” partner!
The “ResourCity app” of VITO is an augmented reality game app in which youngsters hunt for chemical elements instead of Pokémons. By doing so, they discover what fabrics and materials are hidden in the buildings and objects around them.
Schools can use the ResourCity app for free as a handy, interactive learning tool. For companies and authorities, the game can be used to highlight their connection to chemistry and emphasise their connection to sustainability and circularity. Companies can even become ambassadors of one or more elements from the periodic table and get extra exposure in the game.
As Flanders Metals Valley is all about circularity and climate neutrality in the metallurgical sector, we are a partner of the app and have several members who are already active as ambassadors in the game. For example, Aurubis is ambassador of the chemical element Cu (Copper) and Umicore is ambassador of the chemical element Ni (Nickel). Both companies will therefore be highlighted in the game when their elements appear on several locations.
The goal of the app is to use an augmented reality gaming world to introduce people, and especially youngsters, to a circular economy, where resources and raw materials are reused as often as possible in high-quality applications. The elements to look for in augmented reality also have a physical connection to the local context, either from now or the past and give the users a playfull scientific insight. A church built from sandstone, for example, may incorporate the element silicon, as it is one of the chemical building blocks of this stone. Likewise, the element zinc may be found near a factory that processes this metal.
Since January 2023 VITO started offering teachers free access to the app’s management system. This allows them to place chemical elements themselves in augmented reality wherever they want. Teachers can also customise the facts behind the elements according to their curriculum goals.
“We plan to continue rolling out ResourCity in this way and make sure it has even stronger local anchoring, tailored to the target group,’ explains Philip Marynissen of VITO. Flanders Metals Valley will continue to support this quest as it is very much interlinked with the activities of their working group “Education” which aims on motivating and activating youngsters into choosing a STEM related field of study and becoming a part of our industry.
Interested teachers can register for the ResourCity app via this link.