Learn about community resilience with augmented reality / June 2, 2022 by Natalia Mroz

Published in: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) website

Teachers and parents looking for exciting new ways to capture students’ imaginations can try the Mt Resilience augmented reality experience.

Mt Resilience provides a great way to engage students in climate and sustainability issues, allowing them to take a virtual field trip to an Australian town that’s been designed around impacts of climate change and disaster preparedness.

Students will discover stories about important issues such as bushfires, floods and coastal erosion, and they will move through the 3D model town of Mt Resilience to see how residents have responded to these challenges.

These learnings include the latest solutions and innovations to tackle climate change, as well as grassroots, household-based actions that everyone can put in place right now to prepare for disasters.

With severe weather impacting several Australian states and regions recently, Mt Resilience can help students imagine a sustainable and hopeful future, where climate change impacts are mitigated and managed.

Tips for communicating during disasters

Inspired by the ABC’s Big Weather program, Mt Resilience covers helpful tips such as how to keep in touch with neighbours and friends during a severe weather event.One communication tip includes setting up a WhatsApp or Facebook group for neighbourhoods to coordinate responses. Whether it's communicating a safe assembly place to gather or arranging a street party, it will be easier if you already have an established social media group.

Mt Resilience also recommends preparing an emergency kit with two-way radios or walkie-talkies as a backup in case of power failures — with a reminder to not forget spare batteries! Having these can help family members and local groups keep in touch with one another.

With communication being one of the first things to break down in an emergency, tips such as these are vital during a disaster response.

Emergency preparedness

Mt Resilience also highlights important ways to prevent emergencies from turning into disasters in the first place. Preparedness and planning are the key here.

Some of the things Mt Resilience allows you to explore include building flood- and fire-resistant homes with specialised building materials, and creating green zones around towns that can double as either flood or fire breaks — green zones also boost community wellbeing by providing space for recreation, enjoying nature and relaxing.

Explore real-world solutions

Mt Resilience draws on real-world examples in the solutions it allows players to explore.

For example, you can learn about the crucial role of local community centres in preparing for and recovering from disasters. A community centre can become a place to coordinate volunteers, liaise with disaster teams and work to connect everyone in town in times of crisis.

The community in the historic town of Cobargo, south-east NSW, is a great example of this. The people of Cobargo have been proud of their capacity to work collectively since the fires of 2019, and one of the features of their bushfire recovery plan has been the Cobargo Resilience Centre.

How to play

So what's it like to explore Mt Resilience? You can walk through the town’s streets, fly above for a drone-like overview and stay out of the way of the tornado that strikes the town at one scary moment in this augmented reality (AR) experience.

When playing on mobile devices, it’s best to find a clear space on a tabletop or desk, and turn up the volume. Set aside at least 15 minutes to discover everything, as there's a lot to see and learn in Mt Resilience!

And it's no longer just a webAR application for mobile devices. The Australian Museum partnered with the ABC and extended-reality studio PHORIA to improve the desktop navigation of Mt Resilience. This means Mt Resilience now also works well on desktop computers and tablets, bringing the virtual town of Mt Resilience right into the classroom.

If you're using a computer, take note of the pop-up instructions at the start about using the mouse and keyboard to move, zoom and travel through the 3D town. You'll get the hang of it with just a few clicks.

With teachers striving to find new ways to connect with a generation of students who spend their playtime in global gaming platforms like Roblox, innovative AR experiences such as Mt Resilience are both relevant and engaging.

After the virtual field trip, students will know how sustainable building materials can help withstand severe storms, and they will gain a deeper understanding of cultural burning by First Nations people plus other insights into community planning and disaster preparedness.

That’s the beauty of Mt Resilience: big picture learning outcomes taught in a fun, interactive way.

Natalia Mroz is a media producer at the Australian Museum. She specialises in using digital media to create and promote community stories, particularly around cultural issues and sustainable development.

Solar Power Lights Up New Business In Uganda Village / February 9, 2015 by Natalia Mroz

At 5 p.m. on a Tuesday, lights flicker on at a small hairdressing salon which lies at the center of a bustling little trade market in Ruhiira Millennium Village, Uganda. The proprietor, Mr. Asimwe Enock, patiently trims a group of fidgety school children in assorted uniforms. Outside, a crowd of onlookers cheers on a snooker contest, whilst the surrounding tailors, vegetable sellers and drink vendors compete for customers’ attention. Yet it was only four weeks earlier when all this activity was cut short each afternoon due to a lack of access to electricity. One-hundred twenty light bulbs were switched on in Ruhiira for the first time last year, using the innovative SharedSolar system installed by the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). The impact on villagers’ lives has already been tremendous.

Millennium Villages develop unique solutions to prevent the spread of HIV in partnership with UNAIDS / November 22, 2013 by Natalia Mroz

Last year, 103 HIV positive women gathered together in Sauri Millennium Village in Western Kenya to celebrate an extraordinary event – at 18 months, all but three of their children tested negative for the disease, thanks in a large part to a monitoring and retention scheme developed by the Sauri Millennium Villages Project health team. Sauri’s HIV Exposed Infant (HEI) Follow Up Program, as the scheme is called, was implemented thanks to an ongoing partnership between the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), UNAIDS, the Government of Kenya and other partners, focused on eliminating the transmission of HIV from mother to child. The graduation ceremony is one of several innovative grass-roots solutions developed by MVP health teams in ten African countries – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal and Ghana – to now show encouraging results, with instances of HIV infected infants now standing at less than 5%.

Washing hands improves schooling in Mwandama Millennium Village / October 22, 2013 by Natalia Mroz

As part of the Global Handwashing Day celebrated across the world last week, Mwandama’s schools joined together to sing, dance and have fun in the name of better health. During the event, more than 600 children pledged to wash their hands with soap and water – the simplest and most inexpensive way to prevent diarrheal diseases which, sadly, causes the death of almost two million of children every year, the disproportionate percent in rural Africa. When asked, children as young as six were able to tell me the five key moments when washing hands is crucial, and jostled each other to demonstrate the proper technique for using soap and clean water to get rid of life-threatening bacteria. The Millennium Villages Project (MVP) has been working to improve sanitation in schools across Africa since 2005. This effort was given a boost last year thanks to a partnership with Unilever, which will see the implementation of Unilever’s proven hand washing program in ten countries.

Ground Breaking Africa-wide Soil Map to Support Poverty Alleviation and Help Boost Food Security / August 16, 2013 by Natalia Mroz

Columbia University’s Nairobi-based Global Center for Africa has begun implementing the next phase of the Africa Soil Information Service (AfSIS) Project, with $4.902 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AfSIS is an African-led initiative which represents a historic first for the continent - it aims to develop the most comprehensive, high-resolution and real-time map of the continent’s soils and landscapes to date, and, if successful, is expected to serve as a model for the rest of the world.

Improved Eyesight Gives Patients a New Lease on Life in Ruhiira / April 26, 2013 by Natalia Mroz

One day in July, 2011, Mzee Rwebituzi Stephen, an 82 year old farmer from Ruhiira Millennium Village in Uganda, opened his eyes and was surprised to be able to see. He had been completely blind for four years. “I could not move [more than] a few steps by myself,” remembers Mzee Rwebituzi. “My grandson would drag me, holding onto a stick. I would recognize people including my family members by voice.”. Thanks to an annual eye care initiative launched in 2011 in Ruhiira by the Millennium Villages Project in partnership with the Tommy Hilfiger Foundation, villagers like Mzee Rwebituzi are able to regain their sight and their lives.

Progress Toward Sustainability via Agribusiness in Malawi / April 5, 2013 by Natalia Mroz

n 2011, the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) began to accelerate its business development activities as part of a project-wide push to enable communities to become self-sufficient by 2015. The establishment of rural cooperatives is the driver behind this strategy, facilitating agricultural production, sales and increased incomes. The community can then reinvest the increased agricultural income to maintain progress in other areas, such as education and health. The cooperatives are designed to help member farmers transition from subsistence to commercialised agriculture.

Young Girls in Malawi Get Chance at Secondary Education / December 12, 2012 by Natalia Mroz

A doctor, a journalist and a banker are some of the diverse careers being pursued by ten talented girls in Mwandama Millennium Village in rural Malawi. For this group of students, the opportunity to continue their education beyond primary school has been a dream come true. Most of the girls are orphans and come from Mwandama’s poorest families, living in an environment where higher education is a luxury unaffordable to most.