Inspiration
According to a 2016 study by the ACT, only 48% of U.S. high school graduates had an interest in STEM majors or careers. The problem is that we are starting too late in getting kids interested in STEM. Astro Kids aims to address this by allowing kids to see who knows more about Astronomy by battling each other with this fun game. Win or lose, each player will learn more about the cosmos when they play.
What it does
Astro Kids is a trivia game that let’s kids (or adults) battle each other to see who knows more about Astronomy and Astrophysics. There are even a few questions about the American space industry for players in the United States and a few questions about the British contributions to advancing our understanding of the cosmos for players in the United Kingdom.
How I built it
I used AWS Lambda with Node 8.10 and Amazon DynamoDB to persist session data so that players can return to games they have not finished it. I also used entity resolution for the answers so that players can say some responses slightly different.
Challenges I ran into
This was the first time I played around with the Gadgets API and roll call was a little weird to deal with at first. I think it was because I was newbie at this so I am sure the next time will be easier.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
First time I used the Gadgets API and actually the first time I published a skill in a non-US store.
What I learned
The Gadget API was the major technical thing I learned. I also learned a little bit about personalizing experiences for different countries.
What's next for Astro Kids
I want to add levels so that younger kids get a different set of questions than older kids. Just have to think about how to design that experience from a high level.
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