The perfect antidote for bored kids in London during the school holidays and weekends 
(30/07/2010)
Mission:Explore is a free iphone app and website which encourages children and families to get out and about, discovering new things and new ways of looking at things in their own environment. Specifically, the new app and website sets over 1,000 location-based challenges/missions in London, though there are also missions that can be carried out anywhere in the world.
It's hugely fun, highly educational, and a little bit wacky in places. The app is the perfect pocket solution for keeping kids entertained throughout school holidays and weekends.
Mission:Explore, an iphone app and website, created by one of the UK’s top design agencies in partnership with The Geography Collective. Comprising hundreds of location-based challenges, it is packed with wacky adventures and ways to discover the hidden geographies of London. But be warned, you will never see the city in the same way again!
Mission:Explore London includes over 1,000 location-specific missions for kids (aged 7 to 97) to complete in central London, as well as ones that can be done anywhere in the world. Based on the book Mission:Explore by The Geography Collective, each mission challenges kids and adults alike to explore and experience their environment in new ways.
All Mission:Explore challenges are created and individually checked on foot by experienced explorers from The Geography Collective. Only reasonably safe adventures appear and a training section teaches explorers how to look after themselves before they set out.
Mission:Explore London has been supported by an Ordnance Survey GeoVation Award.
Daniel Raven-Ellison, of The Geography Collective, said: “Mission:Explore is about helping kids and families to get out exploring. You might be looking for a place to play or inspiration for something to do, or you might want to learn about the geography of a place.
“Mission:explore helps to deliver on all of these things, but it goes deeper too. Scores of politicians, academics, charities and parents agree that chi ldren need to have more freedom to play outdoors.
“The Mission:Explore iphone app, website and book tackles risk aversion head-on, talking directly to children and families, providing a cultural solution to a cultural problem. Exploration can increase learning, improve physical and mental health and address social and environmental issues. This is our contribution to promoting all these things.”
Each mission involves some research, an experiment, creating something artistic or travelling in an alternative way. Each mission includes a challenge, information on how geographical thinking can be used to tackle the challenge, tip s and a risk assessment.
A location-specific mission in Trafalgar Square
*Give the lions a health check *
These lions are getting old. They have been here since 1868! Give them all a full health check. Which lion is most healthy?
A location-specific mission in Covent Garden
*Look up *
Stand in different parts of Covent Garden and look up. What’s the greatest number of people that you can get looking up at any one time?
An anywhere mission
*Go on an urban safari *
Get on a bus and go on a wildlife safari in the urban jungle. Photograph any animals you see. They can be real, named or imagined
An anywhere mission
*Find evidence of topocide *
Go somewhere you like. What is threatening to kill this place? Take photographic evidence and submit to your local authorities
Mission Explorers will find guest missions by well-known explorers too, including Jake Meyer, the youngest Briton to climb Everest, and Sarah Outen, the first woman and youngest person to row across the Indian Ocean.
All royalties from the Mission:Explore book are invested in free copies for children who cannot afford their own. Copies have already been distributed by the Play Association Tower Hamlets and RoSPA. Mission:Explore is supported by the CSEC (Child Safety Education Coaltion) of which it is a part. Published by Can of Worms Kids Press, the book is available nationwide.
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