Dr Kenneth Y T Lim and Team Develop Mixed-Reality Game

Dr Kenneth Y T Lim, Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, has developed a game to help students and visitors to the NTU campus learn about history, culture and ecology called “Yunnan Rangers”. “Yunnan Rangers” was developed by Dr Lim and team, and, under the auspices of the Nanyang Research Programme, Ms Wong Yuk Yi. The game is themed around the NTU Yunnan Gardens, built in the 1950s, and re-opened in 2020 after a 3-year renovation.

Play as a time traveller from the 1950s, dropped off in modern day Yunnan Gardens, and return to your own time by opening a portal in the middle of the garden! Learn about the ecology, history, and culture in the gardens along the way—discover the bioretention facility designed to treat stormwater run-off, or the cultural heritage of various plant species in the gardens. “Yunnan Rangers” is unique in that it can be played both on and off-site. The on-site version of game is played via smartphones and uses augmented reality (AR) to complement players’ adventures. The off-site version of the game is a board game companion to the on-site AR game.

Watch a video developed by Dr Lim and team on how to play the off-site version of the game here: 

“Yunnan Rangers” is now part of the Singapore Kaleidoscope (SgK), a compulsory course under the enhanced Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme. It seeks to enlarge student teachers’ understanding of the issues confronting Singapore, while cultivating appreciative inquiry as well as self-directed and experiential learning skills. As part of the course, student teachers explore various themes, such as “Nature and Biodiversity” and “Singapore in the World”. “Yunnan Rangers” is positioned within the SgK theme of “Heritage, Society and Culture”.


Discovering the Yunnan Gardens through “Yunnan Rangers”