Matlani.earth

Hackademy, Culiacan | Discovering Science Connections

Matlani Earth

High-Level Project Summary

To make these connections and human stories that make possible the joint work of the different scientific disciplines, which collaborate in multidisciplinary projects for NASA, we decided to create an interactive story game experience, where each participant decides based on experiences of their life and which leads them to different endings. This work is focused on students, where the connections and collaborations between the different research areas are shown, being the way that makes possible a great variety of projects that have been developed for a better future. This interactive gaming experience is hosted on a web page thanks to the azure facilities.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://github.com/Matlani-earth/Matlani.earth

Link to Final Project

https://matlaniearth.azurewebsites.net/

Detailed Project Description

Have you ever wondered what unites all scientific disciplines? We believe that what connects science and its different scientific disciplines are the lives and stories of the thousands of people who do science every day around the world. The path that forms a scientist is nothing more than a life of adventure, which leads them to wonder ... what if? In this sense, anyone can become a scientist.

To make these connections and human stories understandable that make possible the joint work of the different scientific disciplines that collaborate in joint projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, we decided to create an interactive story game experience, where each participant decides on based on everyday life experiences which will be the end of the character's story. All the life decisions that the user can choose are based on real stories from NASA scientists and at the end of the game direct links are provided to the NASA page so that players can know the complete story of the scientist. This interactive game experience is hosted on a web page that is free and easy to access for everyone, so it can be easily integrated as an interactive tool for science dissemination projects focused mainly on high school youth who seek to present the idea that anyone You can become a great scientist and talk about the trajectory and life of scientists.

We consider that making accessible the life stories that have made ordinary people become great scientists all over the world is a fun and friendly way to get young people closer to science. Making it possible for them to find life stories, interests and similarities of geographical and social origin within the profiles of NASA scientists that brings them closer to science and / or studying a scientific career. With this project we hope that young people who still do not know what career to study as well as the public who do not know about science in general can approach science through the connections and human lives of the scientists that make up NASA.

Space Agency Data

NASA data were used differently in each information collection, some only extracted images and others detailed information from documents, databases, or bibliographies of people who contributed or worked within NASA.

The purpose of the images was not to saturate only with text and so that more public felt interested in continuing with the reading, also generating a visual understanding to the reader.

In the part of the development of the interactive story, NASA documents and files were taken to generate a story as close to reality as possible, without generating much speculation which could in its case generate disinformation about certain characters or historical events.

With the information collected and understood, they continued to find those links and connections between the different disciplines of science, whether applied or theoretical. Show in a simplified way the connections so that any reader understands an important message, in which anyone can become an astronaut, because to achieve distant goals (literal far, planetary distances) the collaboration of a large group of people from different fields is needed , such as architecture, computing, physical, biological, chemical, medical sciences, without forgetting applied sciences such as engineering.

Hackathon Journey

Rosa Ruiz: My experience in the app space was incredible, I never thought I found an opportunity, where I met people with a common interest, who, in addition to supporting and teaching me throughout this project, remained firm until the plan was completed, overcoming obstacles. Thank you to the program for providing the opportunity to young innovators who have the desire to contribute to the planet and support us in meeting our goals.

Juan Romero: A challenge, the interaction with other people was interesting, that each one can collaborate in a way, but if there is not a good organization, the skills of each one are overshadowed by disorganization, I think that the main requirement in teamwork is have a good communication and organization

Sara Barrios: This experience helped me to put into practice my skills as a communicator, based on all the knowledge that I have acquired in the university, I was able to develop a science dissemination strategy, a script and a speech for the presentation of the project. I learned a lot about different digital tools thanks to interdisciplinary work with my colleagues from other careers. What inspired me to choose this challenge was my commitment to the work of science communication to make science accessible to all, one that unites us and benefits as a local and global community. My approach to solving this problem stems from studies in science communication to develop communication strategies that allow people to generate a favorable public perception of science. Our team solved all the setbacks with patience, communication and respect, we got to know each other better and we solved the problems through listening carefully.

Chris Juárez: First of all, I am very happy with the organizers of the Space apps challenge, the innovation group, hackademy, and the Culiacán space apps headquarters, because even with difficulties, the atmosphere was good, fun and entertaining.

We managed to learn interesting things before and during the challenge, as well as I imagine we will continue to do so with what is coming. We could solve everything at the time, always with the communication of each of the members, talking and working in harmony.