The Augmented Reality Sandbox (AR Sandbox) has been updated and renovated to continue at the Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of Zaragoza (Paraninfo building, Plaza Basilio Paraíso), where the activity begins a new phase from Friday, July 11, 2025. This interactive educational activity debuted in 2016 during the Science and Technology Week of Aragon. Since then, the AR Sandbox has participated in different activities of science outreach and events at eTOPIA, the Government of Aragon, Zaragoza Activa, CaixaForum, and CIDE (Valencia), among others. Since May 2021, renovated with a new furniture and under autonomous operation, the AR Sandbox was installed in the Museum, where it receives around 5,000 visits per month.
Developed by the initiative of RAMA group EEAD researchers (C. Castañeda and B. Latorre) with the support of the Delegation of CSIC in Aragon, the installation is based on the model developed by UC Davis and includes the modification carried out by GEO3BCN-CSIC. The augmented reality sandbox interactively simulates the topography, relief, and movement of surface water in the landscape.
This second update has involved updating some of its electronic, hardware, and code components. The result is a new version with three game options that allow the AR Sandbox to be used for teaching purposes on different subjects such as soil erosion, geomorphology, and landscape evolution at different academic levels:
- Simulation of water movement in the landscape (original version from UC Davis, California)
- Simulation of lava flow movement (original version from UC Davis, California)
- Simulation of water movement with erosion, including sediment transport (version by D. García-Castellano, GEO3BCN-CSIC).
We encourage everybody to visit it and we hope that this new phase will be even more engaging: teachers, students, parents and children.