Dear all
Please see below an extract from an invitation to tender for an educational online game relating to Stonehenge. Please get in touch if you’d like more information about the project and the full tender document. The deadline for submissions is Monday 25th February and we will be interviewing either in Bristol or Swindon on 6th March.
Best wishes
Harriet
Harriet Attwood
Education Manager South West
English Heritage
0117 9750729
07770 812111
DESCRIPTION OF SCOPE
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Employer
The Employer is English Heritage. English Heritage is the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment in England, established by
the National Heritage Act 1983. It is concerned with all aspects of England’s built and archaeological heritage and works to conserve and enhance the historic environment, broaden public access to heritage and increase
people’s understanding of the past. Activities include caring for over 400 historic properties and making them accessible to the public; supporting programmes of research and grant-giving; maintaining the National
Monuments Record as a national archive of the historic environment; encouraging broader public involvement with heritage. English Heritage is funded in part by the Government and in part from earned revenue and fundraising.
1.2 The Project Manager is Harriet Attwood, Education Manager SW
1.3 Project Overview
English Heritage wishes to commission an educational games agency to develop a series of 2-3 short online games and a longer online quest relating to Stonehenge. The short games will engage younger KS2 groups (age 7-11) with Stonehenge while the longer online quest will encourage small groups at KS3 (age 11-14) to compete to build Stonehenge and will be linked to, and encourage a site visit. The games will be cross curricular and the quest will help to explain accessibly how Stonehenge was built whilst stimulating curiosity about visiting the site.
2. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
2.1 Education
The English Heritage Education Team works with schools and other learners who are following planned or curriculum-based learning activities. Education programmes and partnerships are developed by the Education Team of 5.5 f.t.e. regional Education Managers, 4 regional Education Co-ordinators, an Archives Education Manager, a Resources Manager, and a Resources Developer. They are supported by 4 centrally-based Educational Bookings Co-ordinators and by an Education Marketing Manager.
Education provision can be broadly grouped as follows:
2.1.1 Free Educational Visits
English Heritage offers free admission to its sites for educational groups during the normal opening hours of the properties and on some days at some properties when they are normally closed to the public. Free Education Visits are part of our funding agreement with the DCMS.
2.1.2 Discovery visits
At some sites education groups can take part in a facilitated activity led by a member of English Heritage staff, a freelancer or volunteer. Discovery Visits currently cost £90 per class. Discovery Visits constitute c. 10% of Free Education Visits
2.1.3 On-line resources
English Heritage offers a wide range of free on-line and downloadable learning resources. These are designed to support Free Education Visits or to act as stand alone resources for use in a classroom. These are available at http://www.heritageexplorer.org.uk and http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/education/ Additional resources are also available on the TES website.
2.1.4 Partnership projects
English Heritage has a range of on-going projects with partners across the heritage and education sectors. This includes input into Initial Teacher Education, CPD for teachers as well as partnership projects with individual schools and clusters. At Stonehenge the education team works in partnership with the National Trust, Wessex Archaeology, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and Wiltshire Heritage Museum.
2.2 Stonehenge
2.2.1 Stonehenge Visitor Centre
A new visitor centre and an improved landscape setting are planned for Stonehenge for autumn 2013. The developments will include:
• An improved landscape setting for Stonehenge. The A344 adjacent to the Stones, and the current facilities, will be removed and returned to chalk downland, reuniting the monument with its Avenue.
• A new, sensitively designed and environmentally sustainable Stonehenge visitor centre. The new centre will provide high-quality and fully accessible exhibition, education centre, café, shop and toilets.
• Better interpretation of the Stones and the Stonehenge WHS. Innovative displays will engage and inspire visitors, whilst equipping them to explore Stonehenge and its landscape in completely new ways.
2.2.2 Stonehenge education programme
Resources and programmes currently available:
• Free entry for learning groups and free planning visit for leaders
• Discovery Visits (facilitated sessions £90 per group) - Stones and bones: Stonehenge in its landscape KS1-3; The business of heritage & tourism KS4-5
• Hazard information sheet
• Twenty Stonehenge Explorer family backpacks with maps and activities for families and young people to explore the wider Stonehenge landscape from Summer 2012
• KS2 scheme of work - "What was our area like in Prehistoric times?" (timeline, games and puzzles)
• Teachers’ kit (info, illustrations, ideas and activities to help make the most of visits)
• Images of Stonehenge (plus classroom activities useful before and after visits)
• Stonehenge activity sheet (short quiz and fun facts for KS3 and overseas groups)
• Stonehenge Education Resources for French groups (includes Teacher’s Kit, FAQs and Myths and Legends)
• Stonehenge WHS Interactive Map
• Stonehenge Heritage Management resource for travel and tourism students Stonehenge Heritage Management | English Heritage
Planned education programmes and resources at Stonehenge include:
• On-line interactive global timeline
• Neolithic Houses live interpretation hands-on programme
• Film for learning groups setting the site in context
• New teacher’s kit
• Hands-on interactives in the education room including costumes, replica objects and models.
• CPD programme and resources for teachers
• Online quest and short games to help education groups build Stonehenge (outlined in this invitation to tender document)
2.2.4 Background research for development of digital learning resources
In order to inform the content and approach for the online quest, English Heritage commissioned a piece of research undertaken by FLOW Associates in November 2012 which included:
• Reviewing current research in the sector on digital learning
• Consulting with teachers and students, gathering data to establish how schools are using digital technology
• Considering what interactive digital learning experience (content and platform) would most effectively engage learners with Stonehenge.
The findings from the report will be available for the games agency to use in developing the content for the resources.
3. SCOPE OF PROJECT AND APPROACH
The project includes:
• 3.1 Creating an online quest for KS3 students to work collaboratively to build a virtual Stonehenge. The quest will last approximately 30 minutes and will encourage a visit to Stonehenge to complete the mission. An example of an equivalent online quest, without a site based link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/viking_quest. The quest will need to have the functionality to be paused so that teachers can stop and save the game to review and discuss progress. Consultation with students revealed a desire to build in rewards for completing different elements of the quest. The quest should be sufficiently flexible to allow students of different abilities to participate, and it should provide young people with the autonomy to take the quest in different directions. The quest should be imaginative and creative, and provide an element of unpredictability whilst meeting the embedded learning needs to help students understand how Stonehenge might have been constructed. The quest will enable small teams to work together to build Stonehenge and may explore some of the following enquiries:
o Where will you get the stones from? (assess choices of Preseli Hills or Marlborough Downs)
o How will you move them? (Assess choices of rollers or raft)
o How many men will you need? (Assess choices of numbers and skills)
o How will you shape the stones? (Assess choices of tools)
o How will you erect it? (Assess choices of leverage)
o How will you get the stones to sit on top of each other without falling off? (Assessment of choices for mortice and tenon joints etc)
o How will you use it? (Assessment of different theories of use)
3.2 Creating a minimum of two shorter 5 minute, non-collaborative games/ activities or puzzles for KS2 groups, similar to those found on the British Museum website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/young_explorers/play.aspx . These games will be cross- curricular, and may include links to maths, science and geography. The games and quest will also extend the IT skills of students, for example by using 3d graphics tools or manipulating data. Examples of the sorts of games these might cover include a simple interactive to sort different types of stone or shape, drag and dropping pre-historic monuments in the landscape onto a map or exploring Google’s 3D Stonehenge to find clues.
3.4 For the development of both the shorter games and the quest, the games agency will be required to consult with one primary and one secondary school who were involved in the consultation for the FLOW report. It is essential that the games meet the needs of our users and consultation with the relevant age ranges during the development of the resources will help to ensure this. English Heritage will provide the agency with the contact details for the schools. The agency should consider how it will build evaluation into the project, including embedding a survey into the game for users to complete. The agency should also demonstrate how EH will be able to monitor how much the game is played and from which websites, for example through Google Analytics.
3.5 The games agency needs to consider creative ways to engage young people with the subject matter, for example through focusing on the human experience of building Stonehenge and creating characters from the Neolithic period.
4. PLATFORMS/ COMPATIBILITY
4.1 The games and quest need to be compatible with the corporate EH website.
4.2 The games need to be able to function with smartboard software, on mobile devices and tablets. The games agency should demonstrate what is achievable in both Flash and HTML, giving consideration to how the collaborative nature of the quest will function if it is developed Flash, and therefore not compatible with some tablets for multi-player use in the classroom.
4.3 The agency should explore ways in which content or excerpts from the games and quest can be seeded to other online portals where young people are likely to visit, for example, You-Tube and if there is potential for any viral dissemination to encourage participation.
4.4 The games will be designed to be played in a fixed location, for instance in schools via the IWB for structured delivery prior to a visit or on individual PCs/ tablets in schools. However, the game should be designed so it can be used on mobile device browsers/operating systems.
4.5 Both the content and the platform should be developed to be relevant and accessible for future use as far as practicable. All the assets generated for the quest and games will need to be able to be re-used and fully owned by EH for use in other education resources.
5. EH ASSETS / INPUT
5.1 English Heritage have undertaken a complete laser survey of the stones that can be made available to the games agency. The data generated by the laser survey will be available free issue but under license for use in this project only. The data generated by the laser survey is available as:
• Raw 3D point data, (ASCII format)
• As a meshed model in OBJ format, as textured or untextured to 0.5 mm. This is available as full, 75%, 50% or 25% resolution if required.
• Digital SLR photography (23 megapixel resolution) of each stone is available for texture mapping.
• The laser survey covers the stones and the immediate landscape surrounding the stones known as the ‘triangle’
5.2 English Heritage is in the process of developing 3D digital models of the three different phases of construction for Stonehenge, and the site today, based on the laser survey which will be in a more accessible format. These will be complete by July 2013.
5.3 English Heritage can provide modern and archive photography, including aerial photography, and some film footage relating to Stonehenge.
5.4 The English Heritage prehistorian for Stonehenge will be able to provide advice in terms of factual content for the games.
5.5 New brand guidelines for the use of the English Heritage logo and brand are to be introduced during the period of game development. This project will be subject to the new guidelines.
6. SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
• Experience of creating games in the heritage education sector for young people
• Creative flair and imagination in games creation
• User – focused approach, with experience of consulting with schools, pupils and teachers and heritage education sector in the development of games and quests
• knowledge of current trends and research within the digital learning sector
• excellent communication skills with a range of people, including students and teachers
7. KEY INFORMATION REQUIRED AS PART OF THE TENDER
1. An outline of skills and experience relating to this project
2. Examples of up to three relevant online games that you have created
3. An outline of your creative approach to this project
4. A timetable indicating key milestones for the project
5. A pricing schedule
6. An indication of how you would approach the project in both Flash and HTML
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