Fare"whale"

Friday, October 17

IQP is officially over. What an experience this has been! Not only did we get the incredible opportunity to work at the New England Aquarium, but we got to deal what it is truly like being on a full time project team. The last week of the term was really a struggle. Between submitting the final report last Friday, preparing for Tuesday's presentation on Monday while fixing our deliverable, going into Boston on Tuesday for our presentation, and then pulling an all-nighter Wednesday to Thursday to address over 600 comments on our report, we are completely burnt out. I wish we had one more day of editing to really polish up the report, I was really itching to fix simple errors while looking over the report today. Looking at the overall report, the parts that really matter are the deliverables. Our framework and content tables will hopefully allow the NEAq to move forward to create this video game. I am hoping to keep in contact with the NEAq so I can play the right whale video game in the future.

Taking a step away from the project, I am amazed at how far our group came as an overall team. We got to really understand each other in terms of what we need to be able to function as a "well oiled machine." My group members knew that once I get stressed to just throw food at me or crack a joke so I can bounce back and focus on the task at hand. I look forward to hanging out together as a group even though IQP is over. Not only my IQP group members, but the people in the Boston IQP in general. We have all come to know each other, and bond over the IQP struggles we all have in common. If there is one thing I wish I could change about the IQP experience it would be to spend more time together as a whole group exploring Boston. I feel like we missed out on getting to see Boston and getting to really know the other groups. I would suggest to the Boston Project Center to reconsider having the students stay in Boston. After having the commuting experience, I would have gladly dished out the funds to stay in Bean Town. I think those 4 hours commuting could have been better spent exploring the city if we lived there.

To make sure we never forget all the amazing experiences we had, I want to include some pictures that captured us in the moment.

Lunch break at the WCPC

Late night shenanigans with the climate group!

Touring Boston!

Someone was a bit too tired for this train ride.

When we need a break, Alex draws whales...

After Presentations!

We were in Chinatown and Ray found this...

One last time seeing the Penguins!

Thank you for staying tuned!

 -Kady :)

Game over.

It's the final countdown. Our words breach and form a surface-active group on our screen like happy right whales. We are fully determined to refine our report.

With the help of our sponsors and advisers through their comments, we are able to connect the report to itself using consistent terminology and references to other sections of the report. We are also able to clearly state the relevance of each mentioned idea. But first, we must address the small gaps which are pointed out to us. Then our report will be complete.

I have brought together a poem to reflect on the many details of our project. Please forgive its rough, unrefined nature:

Untitled

By Alex Helderman 

Roses are red,

Violets are true 

 -ly difficult to engage for the conservation of North Atlantic Right Whales using an educational video game to be developed by WPI student game developers using the seven defined criteria to follow including the factual accuracy of the game to the real life environment of North Atlantic right whales, where lobster fishermen are faced with regulations but collaborate with researchers to pass regulations which can benefit everyone involved, while also addressing the various threats right whales face such as ship strikes, which were reduced by shipping lane changes and speed restrictions, and entanglements, which we are hoping to decrease with fishing gear modifications currently, which must be employed by lobster fishermen who may be supported in their efforts to help right whales by having brands of lobsters which are labeled whale-safe, which I hope an entrepreneur takes on as not only a great business venture but also as an act of benevolent entrepreneurship so that one day as consumers walk through the grocery store, they can make the decision to pick the whale-friendly lobster because their daughter or son once played a game at the New England Aquarium, which is really why we are doing this project.

Kudos to you if you read through that. The project has grown in complexity, and our job now is to clarify all of it in our report. It will be a difficult task, given that we spent much of the week preparing for the brown-bag presentation at the NEAq.

With regards to recent changes in our project, we have condensed the objectives of the methods chapter based on which has similar themes. We did this because two of our objectives were for the purposes of gathering information (audience, platform, location), so we grouped them together into one objective. Our last objective was to create a deliverable which did not actually address a research gap, so it was scrapped for that reason (and a few other reasons I do not recall). Two of our objective titles were revised to reflect on what they actually contributed for our deliverable (content detail tables and the storyline). For a more accurate description, see our report.

I plan to quickly add a lot of information to our methods about the way that we analyzed our information to obtain our deliverable, while my team members will work on other important aspects of our report before we are going to go over the report once more to correct for grammar and flow.

Since we are pressed for time, I will keep this short. We are all in high spirits, ready to clarify our report and submit it. 

This will likely be my last post, so thank you for reading. I have learned a great deal during this project, which we hope to show through our report or at least our deliverable for several members of the New England Aquarium, whom I thank for their support in this project.

Yours,

Alex Helderman

Last Friday of IQP

Its the last Friday of IQP. Wow how time has flew from ID 2050 to now. We have learned so much about our IQP project on our right whale video game project. Its amazing to see how much we have grown as a group and how much our close friendship has developed. This Friday we spent our day focused on our final IQP draft. We woke up super early and drank lots of coffee preparing for compiling all our sections into one complete draft for our sponsors and advisers to review to give us feedback. Thankfully we worked really well today and remained focus to submitting our draft before the deadline we set for ourselves.

After hours of working we submitted our draft today around 6 PM, we are all relived and are prepared to continue working hard until the end of the term. We are ready for any challenges we might need to face this upcoming week and are all nervous for our 45 minute presentation to our sponsors on Tuesday. We hope it goes smoothly as none of us have ever presented for such a long period of time but we will present on Tuesday the best we can! We are looking forward to meeting all the staff at the NEAq and to getting their insight about our project. We are also anticipating on going to see the Imax theater movie Journey to the South Pacific in 3D at the NEAq. We have seen the trailer and it looks like such an enjoyable movie! We can't wait for our last Imax movie this term and to learn more about underwater life! Stay tune for hearing about our last week of IQP and our adventures!

-Whales

Team Whales! Ready for anything!

A Sigh of Relief

Friday, October 10

The post-presentation feeling is one of the best feelings a student can have. Leading up to our final presentation we fluctuated between being nervous to being quite silly about the whole thing. We would begin practicing using our "roller-coaster" voices because we really wanted the audience to feel as excited as we are about our project. I personally felt stressed that morning because of how much we changed our presentation and how little time we had to practice before Thursday, but I fully believe we did an amazing job. I felt we had a solid, confident presentation, and I know we can carry that over to Tuesday's presentation at the NEAq. I am very impressed at the other group presentations as well. Everyone was able to present their ideas and answer any question thrown at them. If anyone at the project center is looking for a major sign of overall improvement, just look and compare our ID2050 presentations with our final IQP presentations.  

Us After Presentations!

When listening to our presentation it really dawned on me how much we have learned the past six weeks. I cannot believe we are already at the point where we are wrapping up our paper. I'm very surprised at how fast the weeks flew by and how much we have accomplished. My main fear is not being able to express our knowledge in our report. We have been working around the clock to edit, add information, and to update old information (yes, our report becomes outdated within a day of submitting a section). The amount of times we have switched our terminology has definitely caused a lot of editing headaches. I hope between the four of us, two advisors, and three sponsors we can fix all the bugs and get the paper ready to go.

I think it is important to not only reflect on how much we learned about right whales, the NEAq, video games, and social implications of technology, but also think of how we have grown as group members. We have spend an enormous amount of time together and really know the ins and outs of our group dynamics. We no longer shy away from second guessing a group member, but jump in immediately and talk through things. As far as receiving feedback, we have gotten used to the 100+ comments and really know how to take in the main messages and rework our paper (hopefully we are actually doing this correctly). Our advisors have been great at encouraging us and keeping us on track. It is a little daunting at times to review so many drafts, but in the end we are better writers and better at using written criticism to our advantage.
-Kady

IQP experience winding down

Wow what a week its been! Between rewriting drafts to going on a toxic tour of Boston to watching Island of Lemurs: Madagascar at the New England Aquarium Imax Theater in 3D .This weeks been very busy but also fun at the same time.

This week we began rewriting our methods chapter to include in detail what we did for each objective. We began working on our deliverable's for the NEAq. We created our content details for the video game which was exhausting but once completed we all felt accomplished. We compiled specific right whale stories from the NEAq catalog, ocean vessels present in the North Atlantic Ocean, marine animals and plants present in the right whales habitat, and many other important details necessary for the video game to include. We based all our information off of the most reliable resources to reflect in the video game to make it as accurate as possible.

We took a break this week from work to relax. We went to the Imax theater and watched Lemurs in 3D. It was a very cool experience. Some of us have never been to a 3D cinema and it was a great experience to learn about lemurs and the threats they face in 3D. I felt as if I were in the movie which made the experience even more amazing. The nice thing was that we did not have to pay to see the movie which is always a plus for us broke college students! After the movie we all headed over to toxic tours and that was interesting experience to be part of. It was nice to see all the other students in IQP Boston. It was nice to catch up with others and to see how everyone's IQP is going. The tour guide of toxic tours was great. It was fascinating to see how other communities in Boston have grown and how their communities have been built. A history lesson that I'm sure we all won't forget. We also explored the NEAq main visitor building and explored the exhibits at the aquarium! Here are some pictures from the week below! Stay tune for more about our Boston adventures to come soon!

-Elior

Toxic Tours! All smiles! :)

On our way home from a great day!

Boston skyscrappers!

Lunch by the harbor!

Elior at the blue action center learning about penguins!

Weekly Team Reflections 10/4

The end of the week has come! What a relief, the weekend is finally here. This week our team began writing the results and recommendations chapters of our IQP report. It was very stressful at first because we had to reflect back on our methods chapter which was out dated and we had to revise this methods chapter first to be able to begin the results and recommendations chapters. We had to back track to what we did and how we got each result. Thankfully after sitting down and rethinking everything we did from the beginning of the term to now we were able to come up with a list of results and a list of recommendations for the future MQP group that will take over our project and the NEAq.

We also began working on our deliverable's for the NEAq. We compiled a list of criteria that is necessary for the development of a video game on right whales. Throughout the week we each wrote a narrative on right whales and integrated all the stories together to create one storyline. Our creative minds made the storyline unique and interesting to read. We presented our draft of our deliverable's to our sponsors at the NEAq who really enjoyed our storyline. Although this week has been very busy we are ready for the challenges we will need to overcome in the weeks to come. As a group we feel as though we can face anything that gets in our way. We feel very accomplished and can't wait for more adventures!

-Whales

The Whales!

Final Official IQP Meeting

October 1, 2014

Our last IQP meeting of the term brought more revelations. In summary, we discussed the matrix we created, but the real focus was on funneling all of our findings and background information into justifiable recommendations.

Life is an enigma. 

This project is for the New England Aquarium, and we need to make sure that we can gain the approval of their research department while giving the MQP team the tools they need to ensure the game is factually accurate, engaging, enlightening about our connection to right whales.

Here is my colorful justification of how the game will address our goal:

1. The game is a communication tool.  That's all--conveying our central message. But what message is that? And how do we convey it?
2. Our central message: the public should know how they affect the ocean--this is the overarching theme of the NEAq's messages. In other words, this is the seed to all other messages we will convey. So, how do we convey that?
3. To convey the message: we will illustrate the problem in an engaging way. The audience can figure out the message themselves. Or we can state it explicitly. But how do we illustrate the problem engagingly?
4. To illustrate the problem engagingly, we will illustrate the life of the right whale and their human threats. The first priority in our illustration is factual accuracy. The other priorities (or "criteria") are fun, engaging-ness, motivation-for-action, and others we have not decided yet. Ideally, the audience will complete the game feeling hopeful and wanting to help.

There are a few general questions about the project that may be good for me to answer:

"What an interesting perspective on the project. How are you going to do it?"

Engaging the audience requires two teams. Our team has spent the past month trying to come up with the materials and recommendations needed by the NEAq and the MQP. The MQP team will convert our recommendations into an engaging game that conveys our message.

"What materials and recommendations?"

Our materials consist of a matrix and a content table, so far.

First, we have a matrix to allow the NEAq to come to a decision on platform for the MQP group. However, this matrix contains so much detail that it is difficult to communicate its meaning, among other problems with it.

Secondly, we have a content table that is currently a work-in-progress which features the appearances, roles in the environment and to right whales, and behaviors of right whales, various other sea creatures, human role-players, and their various vessels and equipment. Ideally, this table will be the only resource the MQP group will need for factual information.

These two charts are supplemented with recommendations targeted at the NEAq and MQP groups. We have findings and background research which we use to justify various decisions about what platform, audience, genre, tone (maybe), storyline, and content should make it into the game.

"Wow, are the recommendations really so important? What does it matter if they are not properly supported by your findings, and are ignored?"

Our recommendations are a communication tool between us and the NEAq/MQP groups, so they can understand the rock-solid research we conducted over the course of at least three months. 

So, our goal is to help the NEAq and the MQP group reach their goals. If we fail to support our recommendations, our project will simply become hollow credit-hours. None of us want that--we want to see the game reach its goal.

Our smiles here indicate our willingness to address the inherent complexities of our project, and to cross this street.

 As our team will be repeating many times, the end of the road is in sight.

Yours,
Alex

So Story, Much Wow

September 30, 2014

The struggle is real. Despite all our research on authoring tools and storylining techniques, actually writing the storyline itself proved to be quite the challenge. Each of us took a different character perspective and wrote a story of their relationship to right whales. This was when we realized how much effort and time goes into writing a story. We have all the information that needs to go into a storyline, but the act of putting it all together in a cohesive manner is the challenge. Writing the Lobster Fisherman point-of-view story took over the span of 3 days and it’s only 3 chapters! Let’s not even talk about how long (…or short) it is. This week is going to be mix stress, frustration, and pressure; trying to our creative juices flowing, testing our storyline, rewriting our storyline. No matter what, we are looking forward to the challenge.

--Ray

The Matrix: Whale Edition

September 26, 2014

My group knows by now my love of charts and tables. Our advisors and sponsors suggested to make a matrix of all the possible platforms, audiences, storyline etc for our video game. I was extremely excited and we began immediately on the train ride home making categories. The matrix helped us organize all the information we have gathered from various interviews, articles, and observations. Be warned, the matrix is massive. However, we had way too much fun putting in links within the document to make it easier to navigate (we hope to add color coordination too). One of my hopes for this matrix is for it to be printed on a poster with our whale drawings posted all over it for the MQP group to use when making the video game. 

The cubical where all the creativity started

Writing the storylines has brought out the creative sides of the group. Who knew we were all so poetic?  Storylining, however, is much harder than we anticipated. It is easy to write a story, but it is not so easy to make it feel as if its alive. We want emotions to pour out of the words to really depict what we want the tone and atmosphere of the video game to be. It will be interesting to see what our advisors think of some of the stories we came up with. 

Typical day at the office

When we discussed our introduction chapter, one of our advisers had us ponder our hopes for this video game. I think it finally hit us that our project was going to turn into something people will play in the future. I want to stay involved with this project and see it to completion. Within the next couple of years I want to be able to take my family to the aquarium to see this game (if it becomes an exhibit of course). We are adamant that we are going to make a difference for right whales with this video game.

Now for the adventure of the week! On Thursday, a few of us went to Fenway for a Boston Red Sox's baseball game! We enjoyed ourselves, and got to mingle with other groups. (We may even be in a movie!) With only a few weeks left in Boston we hope to continue these adventures. 

Red Sox Game!

-Kady

IQP Boston Harbor Cruise!

Today was such a relaxing day, and I think we all needed a break. The Cruise today around Boston was so peaceful!

Boston Harbor

  We got to see other members of the Boston Project Site whom we do not see on a regular basis anymore due to all our busy schedules. We got to bond with others and see how everyone is holding up in their projects. Everyone seemed stressed due to all the deadlines but were staying motivated to get work done.

Out and about in the ocean

On the boat many of us sat inside while others chose to sit outside. Some students were on the deck of the boat and as the boat picked up speed, water splashed everywhere and Deena and Kate got soaked. Everyone laughed.

So many boats

There were lots of boats in the ocean and it seemed like many people were on cruises to start their week off.  

Speeding up

Besides cruising around Boston Harbor, we worked on the methods chapter and rewrote many objectives to be more specific and concise. We restructured the chapter and clarified our project goal and the goal of our video game. It's been a very proactive few days and we are eager to learn and accomplish much much more in the coming week!

-By Elior Anina

Weekly Team Reflections

September 15-19

It has been a long week. We started the week by finalizing our revisions to our whole background chapter, whale watching, hosting a large IQP-MQP joint meeting, learning to fish for lobster, and revising our methodology.

Taken off the coast of Maine, Our Big Blue

During the large IQP-MQP meeting we were able to tie up loose ends about where are project was going. We got a concrete list of things the MQP team needs to take over our project. It was very helpful to have everyone on the same page as us, and encouraging that we seem to be on the right track - however, we have bit off more than we can chew. We were able to have a nice discussion with the Manager of Education and Programs to flesh out the specifics of our video game. Not only did she decide on a target audience for our game, she made us realize that we have two audiences, a primary and a secondary. By stating our primary audience we could then gear our focus towards them, but use all the data and research we have to state how our secondary audience could be affected by our storyline.
We are feeling the pressure now with a little over two weeks left until project presentations. Hopefully we can finalize all our material within the next couple of days so that we have time to test our storyline. We welcome any volunteers who'd like to read our storyline, the more the merrier!

-Whales

On a Lobster-Fishing Boat

September 18, 2014

Our morning drive to Maine

     Today, we spent our day lobster fishing. We took plenty of photos, observed the process of trapping lobsters, and spent much time speaking with the lobster fisherman, our guide.

Lobster Traps

As we spoke with him, we began to realize the complexity of the conflicts between environmental groups and fishermen. Fishermen love whales and would hate to see any entanglements, and they abide by all of the regulations, however costly. To the fishermen, these regulations may seem to come out of nowhere. Fishermen try to get involved so that regulations can be made with safety and the lobster industry in mind. The potential safety hazard that some of the regulations pose creates a difficult conflict.

Whales still end up entangled.  Assuming that the regulations are all followed, then there must be some other reason for the entanglement rate. Perhaps the juveniles require weaker links? If the adults are more able to break free of ropes but juveniles are not, then the juveniles are more likely to become documented as entangled while the adults simply break their ropes. What if this is the reason that juveniles make up 51.4% of serious entanglements, even though they only make up around 28% of the right whale population?

Link designed to break at around 600lb (light blue, center)

In addition, the rule regarding sinking groundlines results in a large number of lost lobster pots ("ghosts"), which must have negative effects on the underground environment and the financial state of lobster fishermen. These rules each have their drawbacks.

However, rules like the multiple-trap-per-trawl rule do not seem to complicate the work of lobstermen, since many of them often use multiple traps anyway. This rule took into account the fishermen, which created exceptions around certain islands.

Similar to this, I hope that our storyline can take into account lobster fishermen, environmental groups, and all of the other key players.

With all of the complexities of our project, we hope to deliver a solution that portrays the true nature of the entanglement and ship strike problem. The main takeaway of our storyline will be an understanding of what everyone can do to help conserve North Atlantic right whales, so whether the person playing the video game is a fisherman, an environmental activist, a scientist, or common citizen, that person would understand what they can do.

Thanks for reading!
Alex Helderman



P.S.
Something I have been pondering: Juveniles who become entangled do not seem to learn to avoid ropes. Why don't whales learn to avoid what causes them so much pain? Why don't they avoid lines and ships, if they can see or hear (in the case of the ships) them coming? Are they just curious? I am not saying that it is the whale's fault, but I am saying that if we can figure out a way to repel them from lines and ships (besides pingers), then we could make a greater difference.

Whale Watching Take 2

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

The second attempt of our whale watching endeavors proved to be success. Not only were be able to gather information on from the participants on the whale watching tours, we saw 3 humpback whales ourselves! When the whale first breached to ocean surface, everyone the ship was left in awe. The whale is a magnificent and majestic creature that seems to do whatever it wants with ease. Their gracefulness is something that will stick with all of us especially when writing about and imagining whales during our project. Although we didn't see our North Atlantic right whale, the humpbacks left the same lasting impression on us.

--Ray

Weekly Whale Writing

September 14, 2014

Week 2 of our project has been very eventful. Between interviewing, researching, writing, and traveling we barely notice how far we have come. As a group, we came closer by discussing our strengths and weaknesses. It was surprising to see that we all shared the same opinions on our weaknesses, and we have put into place a plan to work more efficiently. One of the things we all agreed on is how much we enjoy being able to spend time together outside of the project. It's nice every once in awhile to hang out on the weekends without discussing our project. We want to spend more time enjoying the Boston experience, but find it hard to fit it in with such a hectic schedule. But we have 5 more weeks left, and will be sure to make the most of them. We are all giddy with excitement to see our project come to life with our storyline. After we finish the formalities of writing our background and introduction drafts, we will let our imaginations take over and use all the knowledge we have acquired to write the beginning of our storyline. Just wait and see!

-The Whales

 A view of Boston Harbor form the New England Aquarium Ocean Center, where we work!

Lunch by the Harbor

Research Anyone?

September 11, 2014

After finishing our methods chapter we dove right into updating our background. Who knew our project had so many complexities? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of sources we have read and annotated the past two days. Our original  background was fairly solid, but now we are diving deeper into our topics. I am reading more sources on behavior assessment, observation analysis, engagement in science centers, engaging all audiences, wild tourism, conservation psychology, etc., not to mention all the sources my teammates are researching. I am beginning to understand why video games take years to develop.

On the bright side, even though we are working hard we still found time to meet up with some other group members for lunch at Panera Cares. While finding our way around Boston, me and Elior stumbled upon crews filming for Ted 2 (they even asked us to be extras!). I'm thinking we need a few more lunchtime adventures in Boston, you never know what you're going to find around the corner!

A different view of the aquarium from the BHC ship 

I may have been a bit too excited about my most recent purchase...

Look at them preparing for our sponsor meeting!

We learned a lot this week from the several interviews we conducted and from our sponsor meeting. At one point, the comment was made that the metaphor where the ocean is like our heart and circulatory system. We are looking at a broader perspective that if you help the ocean you will in turn help the right whales. Maybe that is part of our research problem, we want to solve all the world's problems. We want people to care about right whales, and to do that we have to show that everything is connected. We have to show that right whales belong to the ocean, and the ocean belongs to the world, and that we all belong to the same world.

-Kady

Whale Watching Tour!

September 9, 2014

This week started off on an amazing adventure. For the first time ever in our lives, we all attempted to go whale watching in order to assess the demographics on the Boston Harbor Cruises Whale Watching Tours. We were so excited to go out to the ocean and see real life whales. As we headed over to board the ship, our faces were all light up with smiles. We took many pictures to document this memorable trip.

Our Whale Group was thrilled to go whale watching today! Look at those smiles!

A view from our Boston Harbor Cruise Ship as we move depart Boston and set sail into the unknown!

A beautiful view of Boston from the ocean.

Passengers waving their hands to family and friends on shore as we leave the harbor.

Alex and Ray try to reenact Titanic as the ship picks up speed.

As we headed out to sea, our ship crashed through the waves to try to bring us to our destination. Our bodies jumped off and on the front deck of the ship as the ship made its way through the stormy weather. Unfortunately, because of the high waves which ranged from 3 to 5 feet we had to return back to shore. We never got the chance to see whales but that didn't ruin our day. The day continued to be full of surprise. We got lunch at the Aquarium and each got souvenirs from the Gift Shop. We will attempt to go whale watching again next week and cross your fingers, so hopefully this time we get to see some whales!

-Elior

Weekly Whale Writing

September 5, 2014

What a week it has been! We finally got to spend an entire week on our project without the usual demands from other classes. We never realized how much we could get down once we got the opportunity to have 8 hours dedicated to strictly working on our project (with the obvious work breaks to view penguins at the aquarium). The staff at the NEAq is extremely friendly and welcoming to our group, and we are thankful for such a positive work environment. Here are a few photos and captions from our week!

While taking a lunch break, Alex and Ray were catching some rays on the stairs outside the Ocean Center. 

On our first train ride home we convinced the Climate Group that we lost Elior in the hustle to get to the train. In reality, she met up with Kara from the Cyanobacteria group for dinner. We took a funny snap chat to document the moment.

Of course we had to visit the Aquarium gift shop! We found the display of plush right whales for sale and could not resist playing with them. I see a purchase in our near future.

Our first walk to the aquarium! 

As we are walking through the streets of Boston we pick up on the metropolis styled atmosphere: everyone is rapidly moving from one street to the next, some running in heels to catch their train. The sense of urgency gets our legs moving and we make it to the Aquarium in no time!

-The Whales

What's the Game Plan?

September 4, 2014

Today was a big day. Our schedule is starting to seem routine, and even revising our work plan seems to be going well.

After we all joined each other at Union Station, we moved into the train and reserved ourselves a table. Fresh from a good night of sleep, we fleshed out the details of our daily agenda. Then in Boston, we walked happily along Atlantic Avenue. About ten minutes later, we were in our office, where we began to break down our daily agenda into small, digestible pieces.

Today, this meant deciding the details of our work plan for the rest of the term. Based on emails received this morning, we decided on what was most important for the day: to flesh out all of the details for our interviews and observations. We attempted to research interview techniques using the previous IQP report, method powerpoint presentations from ID2050, the library's reference guide, and sources found online.

After establishing the proper guidelines, we began to plan our various interviews:

• We drafted questions for Mr. Billy Spitzer, the Vice-President of Programs, Exhibits, and Planning in order to find what qualities of exhibits we should implement for our project.
• In order to understand the background of the Maine lobster-men, we took notes on a newspaper article of the impact of the Sinking Line Rule and the Multi-Trap Rule on Maine lobster-men (which would cost a predicted $1.3-$3.6 million for a predicted 30-40% reduction in vertical buoy lines, according to the Bangor Daily News). After we discussed this, we drafted interview questions for the two lobster-men that we would meet.
• We completed equivalent interview preparation for a meeting with Ms. Amy Knowlton, who could provide us with valuable content about the right whale.
• Interviews with participants of whale watching expeditions would be useful for understanding the demographic and the feasibility of  a phone app version of our game if implemented on the tours. We noted that the Boston Harbor Cruises we will be working with are a partner of the New England Aquarium, and not owned by the aquarium.
• The lead naturalist at Boston Harbor Cruises is also available for a brief interview, so we drafted questions to learn about the engagement of the whale watchers from a professional perspective.
• The IMGD professors at WPI will be interviewed with different questions based on each of their areas of expertise. These questions will determine not only the capabilities of the video games, but to investigate what qualities of games make them the most engaging.
• We also created a list of questions for WPI students to determine the effectiveness of our video game story-line.

All of our interview plans followed the proper established guidelines, which include but are not limited to: a clear goal, an informative and complete introduction, a set of semi-structured flexible questions, discussion, and closing comments. After a chicken tender and fries lunch, we continued to refine the other parts of our work plan into concrete by:

• Reviewing the old methods proposal
• Keeping track of what steps in the methods have already been completed or are otherwise unnecessary
• Making changes based on new ideas and familiarity with the project
• Drafting emails to be used later in the project
• Revising and refining the old questions to follow the new interview plans
• Working on a schedule timeline for the rest of the project
• Researching and working to establish guidelines for the observation (as opposed to  interviewing) of aquarium visitors and whale watchers.

In summary, it was a productive day...

But that's not all. On the train ride home, as we continued to discuss the final objective, we began to flesh out the details of the final deliverable. Although it took a lot of discussion, we seemed to come to a decision of a better form of deliverable.

We would provide the New England Aquarium with options for platforms to select for the video game. Each of our platform options would come with all of the details needed for an MQP group to complete the game with minimum research on their part. For each platform option, we will provide the overall genre of game, the story-line, the character concepts, the environment, and any additional recommendations, which are based on the specific nature of the platform. While the platform ideas may change, we seemed to believe the options of phone apps, desktop apps, and an exhibit are suitable.

"For each platform option, we will provide the overall genre of game, the story-line, the character concepts, the environment, and any additional recommendations..."

More details to come tomorrow.

-Alex

First Day at the NEAq

September 2, 2014

Our first day travelling to the New England Aquarium was quite the relaxing experience. It began on the train from Worcester Union Station to Boston South Station where we go over our schedule for the day. When we arrived at the aquarium, we met with Tim Werner at the Ocean Center where we were introduced to our work space and oriented to our environment. This was a standard office building with meeting rooms, cubicle style desks, and marine mammal decorations everywhere. One thing that stood out to us was how dedicated everywhere at the office was to preserving wildlife. The decor of each personal work space consisted of magnets, pictures, posters, brochures, and trinkets all relating to wildlife conservation efforts. Everyone at the New England Aquarium shows a genuine passion for our nature's ecosystems. We want to carry this same passion and portray the same dedication through our project and hopefully make a difference in this community.

-Ray

Working Hard

August 29, 2014

Our second day at the Worcester Project Center. We are more than excited to be planning out our first week at the New England Aquarium. Boston here we come!

ID2050 Reflection

As we are starting up our IQP project again, we wanted to take the time to reflect on our achievements and struggles from D-term. Reading our proposal after the long summer break brought back a flood of emotions and memories associated with our project. We relived the struggles we faced when trying to make people feel for the right whales, and place a sense of urgency and emphasis on why the right whales need to be conserved. ID2050 allowed us to view our project at a wide perspective to see the best course of action for what kind of video game will best help spread awareness on the plight of the right whale. We are looking forward to this 7 week journey we are about to embark on, and wish luck to all of our fellow Boston IQP teammates. -Kady, Elior, Ray, Alex