Inspiration Many students nowadays are really busy. They have many club activities, overwhelming loads of homework, and spend most of their time stressing about their day. According to a study done by Edutopia, the transition into high school and college forces many people to experience high stress levels, which decreases their overall academic performance. Most of the students who were surveyed said that their stress levels originated from the fact that they had a lot on their mind and didn’t have time to wind down, or they couldn’t study efficiently.
Our app is made for mobile devices and has a calendar which users can input tasks throughout the day for an entire week. Putting ideas out onto a calendar helps take a tremendous load off students’ minds by minimizing confusion and planning. Usually seeing information in a simpler way can ease the eyes and mind, so we also provide a day view to only view the tasks of the current day. Sometimes, students have a lot of mini tasks that they can’t put a specific time frame on, such as chores. To resolve this, we have also provided a checklist that does not require a time frame.
Next, we have the workspace. The workspace consists of making flashcards and practicing them. Users can add as many flashcards as they would like to, and when they press practice, they can test their memory by clicking on the card for its definition. Flashcards help students use active recall, which is when they actively use their memory to retrieve information from the brain. Users are constantly reminding themselves of the definitions of the terms to consolidate their memory so that they can recall this information during tests. They can be productive by making and studying their own flashcards even when they are in the car or in a place without cellular data. The terms and definitions that are typed in are saved on the device's database storage, so they can view previously entered terms when they open the app again. Users can also remove cards in case they are studying a new set of terms.
Finally, we have the Relax Zone, which is a place for students to destress their brain and recover from working all the time. We have a meditation feature that allows users to wind down, recover, or re-energize themselves for academics. There are six breathing techniques to use in the meditation, and each technique results in a different state of mind. Personal settings such as color, time duration, and audio are available. Meditation can improve attention, decrease distractions, and help cope better with stress, especially when students have exams coming up. The other part of the Relax Zone has a pong game, which is an additional feature for students to wind down. Repetitive arcade games like pong, pacman, and snake can reduce stress and bring some fun to students.
Some alternatives instead of using our app include writing down plans on paper, which takes up a lot of space and time, or trying to plan everything in your head, which can be time-consuming and energy-draining. Our app can be used by students of all ages, not just high schoolers and college students, and it can help increase academic performance during idle times. That wraps up this video, and thank you for watching.
What it does When users enter the calendar interface, they're prompted to rate their day, but they have the option to rate later or cancel. If they choose to rate, they can input words to describe their day and use a slider to describe their stress level. After that, they can input their schedule from Monday to Sunday. They can also edit task times to change the time of a certain task to a desired time and revert it back to its original time. To see a simpler view of the tasks for the current day, they can switch to the day view. Users can also create a to-do list for tasks without time constraints. They can create tasks, add them to the list, and check them off when completed. All changes are saved within the device's database storage. Users can navigate back to the Home screen by tapping the "Back Home" button.
In the workspace, users can directly create flashcards by entering the term and definition. After adding their desired flashcards, they can practice them by tapping the "Practice" button. They can view the term and then the definition by clicking on the card face. They also have the option to remove cards or go to the next card. The app can store all previously inputted cards in the device's database storage.
The Relax Zone includes a meditation feature and a pong game to help users relax. Users can select their preferred breathing technique, background color, time duration, and audio. They can then start their meditation session. Users can stop the meditation by pressing "Stop Meditation," which will stop the timer and audio. In the pong game, they need to keep the ball up with the paddle, and the ball's speed increases over time. The game keeps track of the user's score. If the user fails to keep the ball above the paddle, the game ends, and they can choose to play again or exit the game.
How we built it We built the app using MIT App Inventor, a powerful tool for building apps with the described features. MIT App Inventor's drag-and-drop interface, event-driven programming, and data storage capabilities made app development straightforward. With MIT App Inventor, we were able to create engaging interfaces, implement functionalities, and test the app easily and efficiently. It's an excellent choice for building Android applications without traditional coding.
Challenges we ran into We faced a storage problem initially, as we couldn't store and use user-inputted information across multiple screens. However, we researched and found a solution using the cloud database. Additionally, designing features that guarantee a more convenient experience for students was challenging due to the app's specific target niches. We had to choose the most calming game, and studies online have shown that pong can decrease student stress.
Accomplishments that we're proud of We are proud to have learned coding a few weeks ago and to have become programmers. Building this app allowed us to apply our newly acquired programming skills and bring our vision to life.
What we learned Throughout the development process, we learned the basics of programming, including concepts such as lists, loops, variables, math, databases, and UI design. We discovered that making a vision come true requires hard work, consistency, and the ability to analyze and adapt when facing roadblocks.
What's next for Clutterfly Moving forward, we hope to develop historical data that measures a student's mental health and academic performance, specifically their grades. This data could be displayed on another page within the app. We have plans for significant improvements to Clutterfly, aiming to enhance the user experience and expand its features based on user feedback.
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