Abstract:

Walk through the Invisible. Chemical Itinerary through the city of Girona:
A walking itinerary through the streets of Girona city was created more than 10 years ago in order to discover the chemistry around us. A walk for everyone, also for students who have only seen chemistry in classrooms and laboratories.
This learning experience could be enhanced by adding game elements. This first step that promote game-based learning is converted, in a second stage, in a learning gamification experience.

Chemical Itinerary, the Video game:
The proposal that we present in this communication is the conversion of the Chemical Itinerary to a video game.
The first goal we want to achieve by making this video game was to keep the essence of the original itinerary: It needs to be recognizable to students and teachers. Another challenge was to develop the video game to be played outdoors, to profit by of all advantages of new technologies, but without losing the reality of the places that surround us when we play. Just as the original itinerary shows, everyone can learn chemistry on the streets.
The first completed and functional version can be downloaded from http://ellaboratori.cat/labflix/

The video game achieves following challenges:
- Geolocated Game. The 11 stops are geolocated and marked on the map of Girona. The game recognizes the point where the player is at any given time and indicates the next point on the route.
- Augmented Reality. The player of the itinerary appears on the map following different steps.
- The story remains the same. The information for each stop is the same as in original itinerary. We will find at each of the stops riddles and challenges.
- Different ways to play. It is allowed to start playing the game directly without any registration or login and it lets the teachers to create a group with their students and become a competitive or cooperative game.

The video game continues to develop:
One of the strengths of this project is that the video game continues growing even though the students who created it did no longer work on it.
We are working on a second stage of the project where the goal is to incorporate the virtual figure of Josep Duran, the creator of the chemical itinerary. This character will explain the hidden story in every stop along the route.
Another line that we have been exploring for the development of this itinerary is to reward with points those players who solve the suggested enigmas. We will also add a counter that indicates the time that has been destined to solve the enigmas.
We are also working in adding hidden places within the itinerary where small chemical experiments can be performed. Results can be compared with those of a virtual chemical laboratory that will be integrated to the game.
The use of augmented reality will allow, for example, being able to visit virtually Cromats Ensesa (a chrome-plating workshop that no longer exists) or to see the angel on the top of the Cathedral close-up.

How far the process of transformation goes?
The creation of the video game of the chemical itinerary is amazing. Like learning process, it has successes and failures. The game takes place in a real environment, and like in the original itinerary, he most important thing, is the journey we made.

Keywords:

Virtualization, gamification, outdoor learning, chemistry learning, itinerary.