Yelm’s Parks and Recreation Department recently launched its latest activity for school-aged children in the community, as the City officially joined the interactive Agents of Discovery program.
According to its website, Agents of Discovery is a digital education technology application for cell phones or tablets that features a web-based dashboard, known as the mission maker. For Yelm’s app, the Parks and Recreation Department can add and create missions specific to different landmarks throughout the city.
Families can download the Agents of Discovery app for free on a smartphone or tablet.
Line Roy, Yelm’s communications and recreation coordinator, said she’s thrilled that the City is bringing another education-based activity to Yelm.
“It’s super cool. It’s an app-based game, kind of like Pokemon Go, but for educational purposes,” Roy said. “It works with geo-editing, just like Pokemon Go does, and we can create different missions in our parks. We have different activities at Yelm City Park, Cochrane Park and Longmire.”
Participants can also select Yelm’s Water Tower as an avatar to load all of the local challenges. Roy said to look out for Agents of Discovery missions at City-hosted events like Galaxy Day, Dinosaur Day, Prairie Days and more.
“The missions are customized to your area,” Roy said. “Ours are very Yelm and Pacific Northwest centric, so participants can learn about their own backyard. This activity, to me, is super cool because it does turn your whole city into an engaging learning environment.”
Roy added that missions at Longmire Park are sports-themed, given that several different sports fields are located there. Cochrane Park will feature missions related to wetlands and conservation.
“What’s really cool is that it isn’t just based in Yelm. If you download it here, you can also play it anywhere else they have the missions,” Roy said. “The company is based out of Vancouver, so it already is Pacific Northwest centric, especially throughout the Puget Sound.”
The new Agents of Discovery program goes hand-in-hand with the City’s Parks Passport activity it launched last year for youth in the community. Roy said participants can earn a ticker for their passport once they’ve completed a challenge.
“If you’re going to use a picture, use our super cool avatar,” Roy said. “You can earn prizes when you complete a full mission. Pop into Yelm City Hall and get a certificate or a sticker or something from our Agents of Discovery prizes.”
Families can follow “City of Yelm Parks and Recreation” on Facebook to stay up to date with the department’s latest events, activities and developments.
The City of Yelm’s next events will take place at 9 a.m., on Saturday, March 16, with “Bunny Breakfast” at the Yelm Community Center, and the “Midnight Eggstravaganza Adult Easter Egg Hunt” taking place at 7:30 p.m. at Cochrane Park.
