High-Level Project Summary
We developed an educational app, centered around the story of a particle right after his mother star exploded into a supernova.The story's main goal is to show the particle's life through the universe, all the places it has visited, the objects and beings it has been part of or observed, and, along the way, show how everything is connected and teach about the diverse NASA science disciplines.For example, studying a star thousands of ligh-years away from Earth might bring something useful to our lives, like when Pierre Jules César Janssen, observing the light of our sun, discovered the element Helium.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
The project works around the five NASA’s science disciplines (Earth Science, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, Planetary Science, Biological and Physical Sciences), inspiring the user to learn about them and see their connection, while playing a game and being taught through questions and curious facts.
To aid in the development process, we used Microsoft Teams, Figma, Canva, and lots of content fonts, like the NASA Science Mission Directorate, NASA Ocean world, and others.
The game is divided into chapters, each one with a specific context. In the first chapter, the user is introduced as a particle by the Astrocat, and starts its journey through the universe after its mother star dies in a supernova. Then, the user will be asked questions about stars, nebulae, black holes, everything related to the environment the particle is in. Each chapter will have five questions, that are of multiple choice, and the user starts with three hearts. Every wrong answer will take one heart, and if they lose all their hearts, it’s game over, they will have to start the chapter again.
The right answer for each question will be shown after the user answers, with the goal to teach the user with their mistakes. After the question, there is an explanation as to why that was the right answer, some curiosities about the subject, and always linking them back to Earth, to improve the user's experience . Then the story continues and more questions come along. Throughout the game, there will be many awards, to motivate the user to play more to achieve each award.
With each chapter and question, the user will learn more and more about the sciences NASA studies, their connections, and how they influence his life. The goal is to show him how important it is to study those subjects, as well as spark their curiosity.
Space Agency Data
We used data from various space agencies and websites. From the resources given to us by the project, the main one was the NASA Science Mission Directorate. With it and other fonts, we gathered information in order to formulate the story of the app as well as questions and explanations for the user about the subjects.
Hackathon Journey
About the development of our Space Apps project, we would like to say that it was an amazing experience, as it gave us the opportunity to deepen our understanding regarding the lines of research NASA studies, and to get more acquainted with past present and future missions.
We learned more about the Perseverance Hover, advances made, how it works, data collection, and other details. Discovered all the official websites that simplify complex subjects, broadcasting them in a lucid manner, like the birth and death of stars, black holes, pulsars, and other amazing stuff!
This challenge was chosen because we were always curious about the universe and its connections, how everything connects into one big “machine”. Being given the opportunity to show those connections to others and make them interested in the same way we are was a very marking experience.
The idea of making a game was chosen as it brings lot’s of benefits to the learning process, such as the stimulation of logical thinking and the engagement white the tool. Through this approach, we joined the realms of astrophysics, planetary science, and heliophysics.
Lots of challenges were faced though the project, and we were able to overcome them and divide everything in parts that, in the end, were unified.
We would like to thank our parents for supporting us in this journey, our mentors and, especially, Camila Baleiro Okado Tamashiro, who gave us many tips as to how to proceed in a better way.
References
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/overview/?page=0
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2016/hubble-views-final-stages-of-a-stars-life
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/news/black-hole-image-makes-history
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-perseverance-rover-cameras-capture-mars-like-never-before
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payload_fraction
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/mars-2020/en/
https://sae.digital/gamificacao-na-educacao/
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/overview/
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system
https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical
https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics
https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science
Tags
#gamification #spacecat #learnapp #spacegame #game #cat #question #answer
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.