Eastern Washington University students create camera phone scavenger hunts

Students at Eastern Washington University (EWU) (near Spokane, Wash.) have created scavenger hunts that include taking photos with camera phones, reports the university’s newspaper, The Easterner.

Two EWU freshman, Kenny Johnson and Jeff Lamb, were bored so they came up with the scavenger hunt.  The article says, “Over 50 individuals participated in the last hunt, leading them throughout the Inland Northwest and even into dumpsters.

“Each scavenger hunt begins with Johnson handing out an itemized list and then the hunt is quickly underway.  Checking off items from the list requires the team to either obtain the item or capture the events with a trusty camera phone.

“Past lists have included video clips of singing bums, capturing lawn gnomes, kissing strangers and pictures of a police officer arresting you.”

Prizes

There are modest prizes for winning the hunt.  They have included trophies, food and a little money.

I wonder if camera phone creators and cellular operators thought scavenger hunts would be one of the uses for the handsets.

(Note to The Easterner:  How about including an “About Us” section on your home page that says who publishes the paper and includes information about the editors?  Perhaps it was right in front of me, but I couldn’t find any section that told me The Easterner was published by EWU or anything else about the paper.  I had to hunt through article to find out what the abbreviation EWU meant!)

Comments

[Mark Kolb]

I have also created a cellular scavenger hunt for the mobile SMS.ac community. Local communities organize a hunt using pictures and clues and text their keyword answer back for verification.
www.kprobe.com