Health4Kids

Inspiration

Kids around the country face the obesity crisis, and we believe a lot of this is linked to the lack of nutritional knowledge. If children become more aware of what foods were healthy and unhealthy, they will be able to make better decisions and choices in cafeterias and restaurants. The foods we chose are most similar to those served at schools around the country.

What it does

This app is a game where the player has to chose the healthier food out of the two common foods on the screen. There will be two options available in the form of a picture and name, and then the player must pick the one he or she believes is healthier. Each round tallies up points and games are 10 rounds long. Along with this, there are nutrition labels and food descriptions for each food available to read next to the food on either side. Besides helping them pick the healthier option, it also brings light to the different ingredients, components and benefits of foods.

How We built it

We built the application using Android Studio using Java and XML. We were able to scrape pictures and nutritional information of our common foods from the web. From building this app, we were able to gain exposure into mobile development.

Challenges We ran into

It was hard to decide how simple or complex to keep the foods. This is a health app, so we want to target children with problems they face in their own health. While making the app there was a lot of going back and forth between foods and presentation. Along with this, we had trouble decided the optimal design for the game with all the nutrition components. For us, it was our first time at such an event and we are amateur coders, so to create a creative project which we could code was difficult.

Accomplishments that We're proud of

We are really proud of the purpose our app serves. If children are exposed to this game, they can become more and more aware of their options, and it will show them the power they have to make healthy decisions. Besides that, it looks good and works well which is a great accomplishment for us.

What We learned

Most of us had never coded using Android Studio, so we spent a lot of time learning this new program. Besides this, while researching we got to see many other projects and applications of this software. Along with these points, we learned how to make our own project from start to finish without any guidance.

What's next for Health4Kids

Well, this app is just the beginning but educating children of the foods they eat is very essential. In the future we can see children becoming more and more aware as they gain exposure to nutrition labels and ingredients. Eventually, we hope for a healthier America and better foods served at schools.

Built With

• native-android