WilderQuest Website F.A.Q
GENERAL
Who are we?
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is in the Office of Environment and Heritage, which is part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. We work to protect and conserve the NSW environment, including the natural environment, Aboriginal Country, culture and heritage and our built heritage, and manage NSW national parks and reserves.
New South Wales has over 860 national parks and reserves. They include landscapes from rainforests and rugged bush to marine wonderlands and outback deserts.
To visit a NSW national park: http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au
For more information go to: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/
What is WilderQuest?
WilderQuest is a program incorporating an online environment and in-nature experiences, developed by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to encourage children and their families to spend time in nature.
The WilderQuest website has an emphasis on helping Australian children become comfortable with and fascinated by nature.
Why create WilderQuest?
We hope that WilderQuest will inspire children to learn more about nature and Aboriginal and Indigenous Australian culture while having fun.
A poll done by the Nature Conservancy in 2008 showed that:
Exposing kids to nature is a crucial step to getting kids to care about environmental issues. Those with personal, positive experiences with nature were twice as likely to view themselves as strong environmentalists and were significantly more likely to express concern about water issues, air pollution, climate change and the overall condition of the environment.
As custodian of the state's natural heritage, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service is in a unique position to help address this growing concern. By helping children and their families to get excited about spending time in nature, we're building the community of people who will help to protect it for years to come.
How do I put forward feedback, complaints or suggestions about the site?
Please use our feedback form. Click here to access it.
ABORIGINAL CULTURE
What is a Welcome to Country?
Welcome to Country should be undertaken by local Aboriginal Elders or a locally recognised Aboriginal community spokesperson from a locally recognised Aboriginal community
The location of any event is important as this will identify the traditional custodians that should be recognised, and the appropriate people to provide local Aboriginal history and welcome event participants to their traditional lands (Country).
Aboriginal organisations, such as your Local Aboriginal Land Council, can provide advice about who should perform a Welcome to Country within a particular area.
What is an Acknowledgement to Country?
An Acknowledgement to Country is a way that everyone can show respect for Aboriginal people, culture and heritage and the ongoing relationship of traditional custodians with land (Country).
For example: I would like to acknowledge the Dharawal Aboriginal people, the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand today and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.
If you are uncertain about who the traditional custodians are, it is appropriate to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand today and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future, without naming particular people.
For more information on Aboriginal languages and culture please click here.
How do I book an Aboriginal Discovery Tour/Walk?
Use our search tool here to find tours on near you. Or go to the NPWS visitor website.
FUNCTIONALITY
Registration
When you register for WilderQuest you can save your progress, achievements and gallery. To register for WilderQuest you are required to enter some basic information.
Please check terms and conditions below for details of how we use your information.
Leaderboard
Once registered, you’ll be able to check your score against other players on the site using the Leaderboard tab in the top menu.
iPad Application
The WilderQuest – Nature Discovery iPad application is free to use and is available on iPad 2 and the new iPad. It can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store here.
The latest version of the app will have the same leaderboard functionality as the website. To save your app scores against the same username as the website please use the same login for both the website and the iPad application.
The iPad will need to be connected to the internet to sync score data.
For more information about the WilderQuest – Nature Discovery application for iPad 2 and the new iPad click here.
Ranger Points
As your child plays games on the WilderQuest site, they will accumulate points for the various tasks they complete. They can later use the points to trade for items in the cupboard located within their cubby.
Ranger Level
Your child will attain increasing Ranger Levels as they gain points from their activities on the site. The Ranger Levels may be linked to additional achievements that may either be delivered through their cubby or via an email to the address they provided at the time of registration.
Points System
| Guess Who? | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each clue you find | 10 | |
| For an incorrect guess | -10 | |
| Bonus for correctly guessing who the mystery animal is | 100 | |
| Field Notes | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each creature located | 30 | |
| For an incorrect guess | -10 | |
| Bonus for correctly answering the quiz | 30 | |
| Paint | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each painting you save to your cubby | 10 | |
| Eco Puzzle | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each correct answer | 40 | |
| Capture | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each successful photo | 10 | |
| Bonus for completing the assignment | 100 | |
| Tracker | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| For each creature tagged | 10 | |
| Bonus point for each second remaining on the clock when the creature is tagged. | 1 | |
WilderQuest Badges
When your child plays any of the games on the WilderQuest site, they will receive a virtual badge.
The first time they complete a task they receive a bronze badge, second time silver and third time gold. When your child has played every game within the same environment, they will receive a special Ranger badge for that environment. This badge is also available in bronze, silver and gold.
Following is a list of the different types of badges:
| Badge | Environment | Achievement |
| Quoll | Rainforest | Completing all tasks |
| Possum | Town | Completing all tasks |
| Frog | Alpine | Completing all tasks |
| Completing Field notebook | ||
| Little Penguin | Coast | Completing all tasks |
| Field badge | ALL | Completing Field notebook |
| Wildcount badge | ALL | Completing Tracker |
| Doco badge | ALL | Completing Capture! |
| Artist badge | ALL | Completing Paint |
| Eco badge | ALL | Completing Ecopuzzle |
| Bio badge | ALL | Completing Guess Who |
| Caterpilly badge | Rainforest | Playing Caterpilly |
| Bandit badge | Cubby | Playing Bower Bandits |
| Memory badge | Coast | Playing Cuttlefish Memory |
| Burrow badge | Alpine | Playing Under the Run |
| Eel Migration badge | Town | Playing Slippery Escape |
| Enviro badge | Cubby | Playing Pick-a-Plastic |
| Blue | Cubby | Playing Blue’s Food Frolic |
Bronze = The first time they complete a game.
Silver = The second time they complete the same game.
Gold = The third time they complete the same game.
Achievements or prizes may change from time to time. Check back into the cubby and click on the "Award" certificate, or look into the cupboard whenever your child plays on the site.
What difficulty level is right for my child?
The WilderQuest site has been developed with a variety of scholastic aptitude and skill levels in mind.
Children may find some of the games quite easy, or extremely challenging, depending on their own level of development. With regard to the levels on the site, there is no right or wrong. It is important for all kids to have fun and hopefully we have ensured there is enough variety in the range of games and questions to challenge even the most advanced kids.
As a rule of thumb, content has been developed with the following age brackets in mind with respect to the difficulty levels:
Easy: >5-6 years
Medium: 6-8 years
Hard: 8+ years
Please note that within each level there may be some games that will require some adult assistance. But the site has been designed so that even children in the youngest age group be able to discover the correct answer with perseverance.
Future developments may include changes to site functionality with primary education in mind.
If you are interested in learning more about our resources for primary education please see our teacher link here.
TECHNICAL
What do I need to get the most out of the WilderQuest website?
The WilderQuest website has been developed especially for children with entertainment and education in mind. The basic site functionality can be accessed with a standard web browser; however, much of the content may require the addition of the Adobe® Flash® player plug-in for your. The plug-in is available for free at the following link:
The WilderQuest website is graphically rich and contains a great deal of audio, video and animation. It has been designed with a broadband internet connection in mind. As such, it is quite a large website and may take longer to load on some computers with slower internet connections. Additionally, using the internet at different times of the day can result in varying results with regard to download speeds. Users with a dial-up connection may have difficulty viewing bandwidth intensive content on the site.
We would strongly recommend using the most recent version of your preferred web browser to get the most out of your experience on the WilderQuest site. Web browsers are available for free and can be downloaded from the company that makes them. Links to a few of the most popular web browsers can be found below:
Accessibility
The team at WilderQuest is committed to enabling all of our audience to benefit from content and services on our website, regardless of their level of abilities. We endeavour to comply with W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 wherever possible.
This site contains a great deal of interactive content that is driven by the user of the site. As such, many of the experiences are non-linear and cannot always be adequately described in a non-visual format. Should you or your child feel that your needs have not been met on our site, we would love to hear from you with your suggestions of how we could improve our site to deliver a better overall experience.
Feedback can be provided though our feedback form.
CONTENT
How do I find out who took our photographs?
All of our images are owned by individuals who have kindly donated them to the site. Please click on the about link if you would like to find our listing.
If you would like more information about individual images please use our feedback form.
I would like to make a comment - how do I let you know?
We need your help to make WilderQuest a better experience!
If you have suggestions to improve our games, functionality and/or accuracy please use our feedback form.
Please be patient with us as there will be a wait between each release.
How do I become an official contributor to the site?
If you would like to contribute images or expertise for future builds of the site please use our feedback form specifying that you would like to become a future contributor and add a link to your online CV or images.
You will receive an email from us if we would like to add you to our contact list.
What are your future plans?
WilderQuest is an ongoing program, which means that we are constantly updating and enhancing its content. For this reason we can incorporate feedback from our users into future plans for the site.
If you would like to submit an idea for future developments, please use our feedback form.
RELEASE NOTES
Our release notes provide further clarification regarding some of the elements used throughout the WilderQuest website and iPad application.
The link to the upcoming release notes will be grouped under this section as soon as it is released.
EVENTS
Where do I go to find out "what’s on" in national parks and/or activities for children in national parks?
For more information on "what’s on" in the National Parks of NSW, visit the National Parks visitor website via the Discovery link, or Wild Wild World and use the search tool to find what’s on near you.
LEGAL
How is my personal information used by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service?
We use your personal information to deliver our services to you so that you can participate in the full experience of the website and the application, and to keep you up to date with events that may be of interest to you.
If you register to use the WilderQuest Program on either the website or the application; your rank, level and score will be able to be posted on the "leaderboard" which is available on the website and the application under your user name. This information will be accessible to other users of the WilderQuest Program through the website and the application.
Your personal information is also collected so that we can promote and market services to you and tailor them to your needs (including by way of direct mail, telemarketing, email, SMS and MMS messages). This is to keep you informed of products, services and special offers and may continue after you cease acquiring services from us.
You can access more information regarding privacy through the Privacy Policy. Copyright information and other Terms of Use for the WilderQuest program website can be accessed through our Terms of Use.
Do you include links to Other Sites?
We work to minimise children's ability to click on links from the WilderQuest website to other sites.
Our WilderQuest privacy policy does not apply to your interactions with other websites. If you find a link to another website on our site, and so you should read the privacy policy of the website provider to see how your personally identifiable information will be treated.
For our Wild Wild World website the relative terms of use can be found here: http://www.wildwildworld.com.au/WWW/Copyright/Terms%20of%20Use
information on OEH policies please visit Office of Environment and Heritage website.
For more general information on the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service please go to the OEH website.