Activities

Want to find out about the exciting ways engineering affects our lives? Then have a go at our new Bio-Dome, Bridge Builder and Colour Matching games. Each game lasts 10-20 minutes and can be played in a single player practice mode or competitively with others.

Bio-Dome The objective is to build a sustainable habitat for a particular population level by satisfying their needs, adapting to the environmental conditions and ensuring pollution doesn't exceed a certain threshold The target is to get the highest population living in your bio-dome at the end of the game Each player starts in their own bio-dome, which is connected to the others via a central hub area Each bio-dome has clearly distinct climates and environmental factors Parts can be combined to create machines and devices, which can then be used to harness environmental factors and process/refine natural resources into new parts and reduce pollution in order to satisfy the populations' needs Parts can be traded with other players by offering them and sending them via transport tubes once the offer is accepted A simple trading table is presented to each player to define the terms of the trade Every 3 minutes new population members arrive in the central hub area The population gravitates towards the bio-dome that most satisfies their needs

Bridge Builder The objective of the game is to work together as a team to build a structurally sound bridge to support the weight of animals of increasing mass The team that creates the most bridges to get all the animals across within the shortest time will score the most points The team has a limited budget to purchase parts for the bridge – the budget is evenly distributed between all available team members Parts can be placed with the left mouse button (bridge parts can be dragged to the desired length) If a part has been placed by mistake it can be removed by the player that placed it and half the original part cost will be returned to this player

Colour Matching The objective of this game is to match the colours shown in the picture on the left by changing the RGB value of each “pixel” in the canvas on the right side The team that matches the most pictures within the 10 minute time limit will score the most points Each player must change the sliders at the bottom of the screen to change the colour of the pixel they are currently standing on Correct pixels will sparkle for the player that set the slider values correctly (no other players will see this)