Intermediate REACH students at Hilton’s QUEST are coding games for baboons at the Seneca Park Zoo. They recently worked with Dr. Caroline DeLong, professor and undergraduate director of psychology at RIT, who is running the study to increase young students’ interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) by engaging them with something that is interesting and familiar – animals at the zoo. She is working with a team of researchers at both RIT and Carnegie Mellon University.
The students learned to code matching games using Scratch, a free program where you can create your own interactive games. They submitted their games and their top two will be downloaded to the Primate Portal at Seneca Park Zoo.
The Primate Portal explores the cognitive abilities of olive baboons by providing games and tasks for the animals to solve on a touch screen. One of the project’s goals is to offer open access to data, code, and video of primates solving cognitive problems so students everywhere can study animal minds.
The students will visit the Seneca Park Zoo on June 14 to see the baboons using their games while scientists observe the baboons’ abilities.
Check out the Primate Portal YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@primateportal3736.
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