It’s now possible to get green time and screen time simultaneously thanks to a new application for smartphones and mobile devices.<\/p>\n
The Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area debuted their “Agents of Discovery” application at their Fall Fun Fest this Saturday. The free, kid-friendly app takes users on a scavenger hunt of sorts around Mendenhall Lake and the glacier.<\/p>\n
With visitors to the area spending so much time on devices, the U.S. Forest Service wanted to meet young visitors where they’re at: on their phones.<\/p>\n
“We’re trying to figure out how to engage kids in more ways out there with technology growing as it is,” said Forest Service Employee Bev Levene, who helped develop the app.<\/p>\n
Questions and challenges pop up in the app when users walk around the MGRA. At Photo Point, a popular area to view the glacier, app users are asked what “ingredients” go into making a glacier. Another challenge asks users to identify birds by their song.<\/p>\n
At Steep Creek, a challenge requires users to change the image of a fish to what a sockeye salmon looks like when spawning. After completing all 12 challenges, app users earn a free badge from the USFS. <\/p>\n
“We want kids outside, out there experiencing it, but so often we see kids and adults coming inside, looking at those phones a lot. So if we can engage that need to look at technology with getting outside, that’s kind of what we’re working on,” Levene said.<\/p>\n
USFS has developed and Agents of Discovery app for the Chugach National Forest and is working on a version for Ketchikan.<\/p>\n
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s now possible to get green time and screen time simultaneously thanks to a new application for smartphones and mobile devices. The Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area debuted their “Agents of Discovery” application at their Fall Fun Fest this Saturday. The free, kid-friendly app takes users on a scavenger hunt of sorts around Mendenhall Lake and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":23212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23211"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}