ZooZooVerse

In 2023, I led a project and founded the 'ZooZooVerse' club on campus, where I guided students in designing animal-themed and Mother's Day virtual spaces.

The first step focused on enhancing student learning by creating a virtual space filled with accumulated thematic content, while also helping students connect with like-minded peers.

The next step will be to distribute the content through VR, MR, or smart glasses (leveraging AI-based visual recognition), enabling immersive and seamless learning in everyday life.

2023 Feb - 2023 Jul

Project Owner/ Club Lecture

User Context

Persona

From spending time chatting with my two daughters, I’ve noticed that many students have a strong interest in animals. That gave me an idea: I’d like to guide students in creating a zoo-themed metaverse—a virtual space where they can gather and share knowledge about all kinds of animals. This immersive environment would make learning fun and engaging by encouraging students to explore, collaborate, and deepen their understanding of the animal world.

Based on the observation, I developed the following persona.

Project Goal

Goal

My goal was to create a community space where students can accumulate and share knowledge, connect with like-minded peers, and enjoy learning together, with content that is accessible and shareable with others.

Strategy

I wanted to validate the feasibility of the idea, so I volunteered as a club lecturer at my child’s school to test it out.

ZooZooVerse Club

Course Objectives

I worked with students as part of the ZooZoo Animal Observation Team. Our mission was to observe a variety of animals, explore their daily behaviors, and uncover fascinating discoveries.

In class, I encouraged students to become animal explorers, challenged with finding and collecting interesting facts about animals. For example:

Do elephants drink water through their trunks?
Did you know elephant poop can be used to make coffee?
A dead camel in the desert can be as dangerous as a bomb!

Knowledge Collections

I taught students how to collect information from the internet and collaborate effectively with their classmates, and help each other.

Animals-themed Spaces

I guided students in designing and building their own imaginative, animal-themed spaces, then joined them in exploring and playing within these creations, sharing stories and exchanging knowledge along the way.

Crocodiles space

Elephants space

Animal food space

Engaging with Users (with Jump-Up Ideas)

Useful and Interesting Design

During the courses, I engaged with students, listened to their needs, and developed a variety of playful and interactive tools. These designs made it easy for students to accumulate interesting content within the space and joyfully interact with others.

Space Messages

Interactive Quiz Tools

Live Q&A

Activities

Learning Accomplishments and Contests

I organized a student competition where participants had to answer all the questions in each animal-themed space to earn a key and unlock the next one. The three students who completed the challenge the fastest received prizes.

Chllange Map

Mother's Day

Mother's Day Spaces

During the semester, I guided students in creating a special 'Mother’s Space' to celebrate Mother’s Day. Each student personalized the space by uploading their drawings, photos, videos, and heartfelt messages for their moms. On Mother’s Day, they invited their mothers to explore the space with them, walking around, sharing memories, and expressing their love in meaningful ways.

After the event, I received many touching thank-you messages from the students' mothers.

Achievements

Video (Feedback from the Students)

This video features students' positive thoughts and feedback about the course.

(Please click the speaker icon on the video to turn on the sound.)

Hsin Lei

"The most impressive part for me was researching and learning about animals—their daily behaviors, diets, and habitats."

Pin An

I gained a lot of knowledge about animals and had so much fun participating in the competitions during each class.

Chen Young

Teacher Jack always encouraged us to find 5 to 10 interesting facts about animals. Through my research, I learned so much and was able to create my own animal metaverse. I also realized the importance of teamwork when interacting with my classmates.

Ge Zhi

Now I know how much a tiger eats daily! I also loved watching YouTube videos and joining competitions in this class.

Wei Cheng

My favorite activity was the Mother’s Day project because I could share my deepest feelings and love with my mom. She was very touched when she saw my creations in my metaverse.

Yu An

I enjoyed drawing and sharing my artwork for the Happy Mother’s Day activity. It was meaningful to express my love and appreciation for my mom in my own metaverse.

Ending

Validation Results

Through this round of validation, the students were delighted to discover and collect quirky facts, create personalized spaces, joint activities, and make new friends. The club received 6 invitations from schools to give lectures, making a valuable teaching experience filled with creativity and meaningful connections.

Current challenges:

Sadly, the following issues are holding the idea back from wider adoption:

Most of the elementary school students don’t have their own devices; they can only use the devices during club activities. Therefore, they are highly dependent on whether the school provides such a program.

I believe that as the average age of device users continues to decrease and smart devices with AI tech become more mature, this concept enable immersive and seamless learning experiences integrated into daily life and has the potential to become an excellent learning platform for future students.