What’s the Word? QuizUp!

Former National Zoological Park (NZP) intern Madelyn Duhon researched over 500 questions for a feature on the app QuizUp, an app available on iOS and Android. QuizUp is world’s largest mobile trivia game with more than 20 million users worldwide and 400 topics. Maddie curated the “Name the Animal” game for the Smithsonian.

She took a roster of all the species living at the zoo, over 350 different ones. It was to walk the fine line between staying true to the science and keeping it fun for the general public. Another challenge Maddie faced wasn’t finding the right answers, but coming up with wrong answers to throw off participants. She worked with NZP’s resident photographer/archivist coming up with unique pictures for each question. Despite the amount of time to compel the necessary pieces of the project, “I didn’t mind working on it for hours at end because it didn’t feel like work,” says Maddie. One of the long lasting effects of this project is her ability to come up with random animal facts now that she’s back at Louisiana State University.