Inspiration
School topics can feel abstract or intimidating when they are only explained in a textbook. We wanted to make learning feel more welcoming by connecting big ideas to everyday examples and memorable stories.
What it does
Aha Academy is a TV-first learning web app with 105 short lessons across 10 subjects. Each of the 100 new lessons includes a simple explanation, an everyday example, an original mini-story, and a quick quiz.
The “Today’s 5 topics” section rotates through the lesson library by date, while the full library remains available. Students can create an account and save lesson and daily-task progress.
Ask Aha is an interactive study-buddy concept with sample, topic-based replies. It does not yet use a live AI service.
How we built it
We built the interface with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, with large cards and keyboard/D-pad navigation for a TV-style experience. A Node.js server handles accounts and progress using SQLite. Passwords are saved as salted scrypt hashes rather than readable text.
Challenges we faced
We worked to make a large lesson collection easy to browse, keep explanations short and student-friendly, and make progress persist for each learner. Designing navigation that works well with a remote-style control was another challenge.
What we learned
We learned how to connect a web interface to a Node.js backend, store learner progress in SQLite, and design a learning experience around short lessons and clear interactions.
What’s next
We’d like to test and package the app for Fire TV or the Vega simulator, connect Ask Aha to a real AI service, and add more lessons and learning activities.
Built With
- accessibility
- amazon-fire-tv
- css3
- d-pad-navigation
- edtech
- education
- html5
- interactive-learning
- javascript
- node.js
- sqlite
- stem
