Science Genius

Inspiration

Kids love games, and love learning through trying first and then learning. Science Genius aims to help youngsters learn science facts by asking questions and providing an explanation.

What it does

Allows the user to get questions on science topics and get instant feedback on their knowledge levels. Ultimately it aims to be fun for everyone to use, whether with the family or alone. Batches of five questions are selected from a curated bank of thousands of specially formatted questions for this Alexa skill, designed to be answerable by those aged 13 years and under.

How I built it

Questions are formatted into a custom format, with sensible alternative answers for the multiple choice format. The skill aims to expose knowledge to the user, so that the user can understand about the science or additional facts surrounding the question. The system is modular and there will more questions added with more subjects and this is easy to do. There is a new "Computer Science" module which will launch soon and help people understand fundamental concepts around computing.

Technically the skill is developed using flask-ask and coded in python.

Challenges I ran into

Keeping the format simple and effective and ensuring there is a fun learning opportunity at every turn as the user plays. Making sure the questions are targeted and reasonable for the age range and not too difficult. That balance between being challenging and too simple.

Whether to included explanations at every question regardless of the result. It was deemed too boring from testers who tried without explanations on each question. Writing the dialogue in such a way to be respectful, friendly and simple such that all the family can use it.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

That many people are already using this skill. Modular design, making it easy and simple to add additional questions and topics. It's helping people enjoy and grasp some difficult topics.

What I learned

To keep dialogue simple. Users like simple mechanisms with straightforward explanations. Better to start with a few smaller topics and gradually refine and improve.

What's next for Science Genius

A "Computer Science" module is already in the works. I would like extend the topics to other areas in more detail such as astronomy, electronics, and maths, so it can provide some real support for students and even help them study and benchmark their learning.

More social aspects, to compete with friends and to track learning averages and select more questions in each round to be tested on. Storage and progress tracker.

Want to add time limits too. Such as speed monitoring and tracking.

Obviously there is limitless scope for expanding the number and range of questions.

You can find the skill with the following ID in the Amazon Alexa Skill Store: amzn1.ask.skill.89da31a0-cad6-464d-ab7d-37766ab7330d