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Rangers Wanted Augmented Reality App Gets Kids Engaged With Nature

Kids now have a new way to learn about the natural world around them without having to put their phones down. 

From the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and Niantic (responsible for app giants like Pokemon GO), Rangers Wanted is an innovative augmented reality smartphone game that will get kids and adults alike engaged with nature.

In Rangers Wanted, Teddy Roosevelt takes kids on an educational adventure through the natural world through their everyday surroundings.

Through an intersection of augmented reality technology and an emphasis on conservation, the game hopes to get kids outdoors and invested in preserving the natural wonders of the communities around them. 

Rangers Wanted is broken up into several mini games, and each mini game tries to tell the story of an animal in its natural habitat. Users will be charged with doing an act of service or a task to help the animal or preserve part of its environment. 

“You’re getting a whole range of these really cool environments and learning about them and how these animals are key to those environments and everything else that lives in the environments, too,” says James Roosevelt, director of technology at TriggerXR, one of the developers who created Rangers Wanted. 

What sets Rangers Wanted apart from other augmented reality smartphone games is its ability to educate and entertain users while also encouraging them to get outside. 

“It’s a sneaky little app in that your kids will be having fun but they’ll also be learning about the environment,” says Ed O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. “And though the game can be played both indoors and outdoors, it’s exponentially more fun to be outside.”

While New York City isn’t exactly known for its ties to the natural world, Rangers Wanted can be enjoyed in urban environments as well as rural or suburban environments. 

O’Keefe says users in urban environments can find fun in “re-wilding” urban environments, sprouting up forests in the middle of Manhattan or making a river rush down Broadway. 

“That’s the fun, imaginative, creative part of augmented reality,” O’Keefe says. “You can turn a physical space like New York City into a natural world and augment and change that place in which you live.” 

For New York City in particular, Rangers Wanted goes further than just being able to play in an urban setting: Teddy Roosevelt himself grew up in New York City. 

“His boyhood home is still preserved right here in New York City,” O’Keefe says. “You could take Rangers Wanted down to 28 East 20th Street and bring alive nature at [Teddy’s] home.” 

The app’s goal of getting users engaged with the environment goes hand in hand with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library’s mission to preserve Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy of commitment to conservation efforts and introducing that legacy to history buffs and explorers of all ages. 

Roosevelt is a direct descendant of Teddy Roosevelt, so preserving his great, great uncle’s legacy was a goal in creating the game. 

He said “Teddy fits perfectly” into the spirit of the game because “one of his highest passions was loving and caring for the environment.”

“I think as long as we’re telling a story about animals, protecting the environment,” Roosevelt says. “Then I think you’re doing right by him.”

Even the game’s use of cutting-edge technology ties into Teddy Roosevelt’s legacy. 

“Teddy loved technology,” O’Keefe says. Teddy Roosevelt “always loved the new and the different,” and carries milestones like being the first President to be in an airplane, be in a submarine, drive a car and leave the country while President. 

“I think that if Teddy were here today, he too would be playing Rangers Wanted,” O’Keefe says. 

Rangers Wanted, a kidSAFE certified game created in collaboration with Niantic Labs, Trigger XR and Future of Storytelling, is available to download and play now.

Psst… Here’s your guide to Midwinter Break Activities in NYC and Nearby!

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