Project Noah

Project Noah uses photo-hunt missions to engage users. The app is divided into three sections that include: Missions, My Noah, and Field Guide. The “Missions” section lets users first choose if they want to partake in a Featured, Local, or Global mission, and then they select a specific mission. Once selected, Project Noah provides users with an image, recent spottings, description, website, and contact for the mission. If the mission interests them, users can tap the “Join” button on the top right of the screen. If they do, the mission will appear in the “My Noah” section, which maintains a list of all missions joined. To complete the missions, users must take pictures of the animal or plants that is the mission’s focus. The “Field Guide” section is a photo collection of animals and plants, and users can tap a picture to learn more about the animal or plant and access missions related to it. The “Field Guide” section also lets users search for its content by location, popularity, and classification (e.g., plant, mammals, birds, and more).

Please Note: Users must register with the app via a social media, Microsoft, or AOL sign-in.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can allow students to select and complete a mission included in this app. As part of completing it, students will have to choose a mission they can complete, take the pictures that are required by the mission, and submit the pictures. Teachers can extend this assignment so students research the mission topic (e.g., plant or animal) and explain: (1) If the topic helps or harms its ecosystem, (2) Where the topic is located on the food chain, and (3) If the topic is indigenous to where it was located. Students can compose their comments using the Polaris, Office Offline, or Quip app and email them to their teacher.
2. After completing a mission in this app, teachers can have students load all their pictures into a presentation using the PopBoardz app. For each picture included in the PopBoardz, students will have to provide 1-3 sentences that explain the picture’s meaning.
3. Teachers can have students explore the “Field Guide” section for animals and plants that are native to their local area. After reading about the animals and plants, students can be assigned to safely photograph the animals and plants. Students can then post those images to a class website with the location where they were taken.
4. After becoming familiar with this app, teachers can have students complete their own mission by photographing an animal or plant that they encounter daily (e.g., a household pet, or a plant growing in their school’s yard or local park) and composing a write-up for it. The write-up can contain information about its local habitat, diet, impact on the ecosystem, where it originated from, and average life span. Students can post their images and commentary to a class website, so classmates can view and read them.

Screenshots