Why Did the Wildlife Cross the Road?

Build bridges over a highway to connect wildlife to their historic habitats. Moving through levels demonstrates real-life ecological relationships and how biodiversity strengthens communities.

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Inspiration

When Andrew and I (Abby) heard the theme was connections we looked at each other and whispered "Bridges!" but we wanted to take it a step further...not just connect the land but create community in the process.

I am a graduate of the Environmental Science department at UAlbany and for the past three Marches I have participated in the NYSDEC's Amphibian Migration & Road Crossings Project. This citizen science event, in short, is when volunteers go out on the first rainy night above 40F to help an abundance of migrating amphibians cross the road. These experiences highlighted the importance of wildlife bridges and tunnels to mitigate the effects of habitat fragmentation. Here we are connecting communities of animals.

Our final tie-in to the connection theme is a connection to ancestral knowledge. It has been recorded that frogs will return to the exact pond that they were spawned in and this connection to family goes back for generations. This happens with geese as well, which is why you often see them in gaggles on "wetlands" that have been drained to create recreational fields. That being said, allowing these animals to be safe in following their instincts given to them by their ancestors these bridges are providing a familial connection.

What it does

This project is a game that seeks to tackle the issue of wildlife crossing major roadways. Players can build bridges out of increasingly sophisticated materials to help animals avoid danger while crossing a highway.

Along the way, players will learn about the impact that each animal has on their environment, and even benefit from these impacts by unlocking new materials to build bridges in the following level.

The gameplay revolves around using the mouse to drop building materials into the shape of a bridge to allow animals to cross. All the while, a line of animals are parading into the highway and turning into ghosts!!

How we built it

Challenges we ran into

It's Just the Two of Us Not to mention, I (Abby) only know elementary Python with statistics applications, so the coding burden went solely on Andrew. This means we had to sacrifice animations and reduce gameplay features. We were working on the game until 10PM so we only had an hour to work out bugs, make sure our link/file worked, and type this out. I would imagine we could have been done a lot sooner had the work been divided between more people.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for Why Did the Wildlife Cross the Road?

We are not sure! Here are some ideas... Abby works as an environmental educator at a NYS Park so she may do a lesson on habitat fragmentation and let kids try out the game. Andrew would like to make Why Did the Wildlife Cross the Road? work for html

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