Convert my fun in-class activity to a fun online activity

April 7, 2020 10:33 AM

For a (doctoral level) class I teach I do an activity where I hide a quarter on the quad (grassy open space the size of a soccer field, say) and a student has two minutes to find it. The student can recruit helpers, if they want, but has to split the fabulous 25 cent spoils evenly with each helper recruited. I'd like to do a similar activity in my now online class.

For example, maybe it's a *very difficult* hidden picture or find one thing different in a field of similar images. I know a programmer could probably easily make a primitive game where you had to move your cursor over just the right pixel to find the quarter, but I'm not a programmer.

Can you think of an activity a person could do remotely (using zoom as a platform) where you would visually search for something but have relatively poor odds that you would actually find it in two minutes, and where having helpers to help you look would increase the odds of finding the thing in the time limit?

Can't wait to hear your ideas.

posted by shadygrove to Education (13 answers total)

Could you talk a little bit about what you want the students to get out of this activity?
posted by ChuraChura at 10:37 AM on April 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

You can play Eye Spy via Zoom.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:38 AM on April 7, 2020

Response by poster: Hey, ChuraChura, it's for a stats class and it's a long story. If it meets these requirements, it will accomplish the goal I have in mind.
posted by shadygrove at 10:49 AM on April 7, 2020

Find a word, described by a concept that doesn't use the word, in a hundred page list of random words? e.g., "something edible" is the prompt, and "pickle" is buried on page 47.

How you do that on zoom, or any CMS I've met. . . I'm not sure, except by trusting everyone to play fair and start and end at a specific time. Which might not be unreasonable for a grad class.
posted by eotvos at 10:53 AM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Perhaps a very high resolution image of something similar (that they could zoom in and out on) could work?
posted by raccoon409 at 10:55 AM on April 7, 2020

Does everyone have to be able to watch them searching or see the scene or picture that's being searched? Or could you tell them to use a search engine on their own computer to search for a picture or article that meets certain requirements? For example, a picture with a 2 year old, a live monkey and a man with a mustache. (I was unable to find one in 2 minutes.) Adding helpers would increase the odds of success but every helper would be doing their own different searches on their own computer and those not involved would have nothing to look at (unless people were screen sharing.)
posted by Redstart at 10:56 AM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Competitive googling with a level of indirection.
"Earl and Burt are on a hunting trip. When Earl runs out of ammo, what hat is he wearing?"
posted by zamboni at 11:01 AM on April 7, 2020

Could you use Google Maps street view in some way? You'd have to do some prep work to find some "unusual" things that can be found that aren't indexed (e.g. a pink house vs. a hospital).
posted by correcaminos at 11:01 AM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: How about finding something in the xkcd "Click and Drag" comic?
posted by mekily at 11:24 AM on April 7, 2020 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh God, mekily, that's perfect. And awful. And perfect. Thank you.
posted by shadygrove at 11:34 AM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I think Racoon409 has a great idea. This site http://www.gigapixel.com/ has a lot of ridiculously high resolution images that could work.
posted by dstopps at 4:48 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

If it's something hidden in xkcd, bear in mind that text therein can be found via google
posted by anadem at 7:21 PM on April 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

More specifically, If they know to consult Explain XKCD, the treasure hunt may take less time than you think.
posted by zamboni at 7:19 AM on April 8, 2020