ecoDex | Devpost

We approached the Sustainable Earth project track, and would like to apply to the "Beginners" overlay. Studies have shown that children prioritize virtual biodiversity over local biodiversity, so our app aims to get kids interested in their local wildlife by creating an interactive virtual way of interacting and learning about their native plants. We did this by creating a regional "ecoDex" of native plants that kids could fill out by taking pictures of plants. We used Kivy in Python for our camera and overall GUI. The picture is sent to the Pl@ntNet API (which identifies plants in a PNG) to get their scientific name. We then use the NatureServe Explorer REST API to find common names, detailed descriptions, and native locations based on the plant's scientific name. We designed our project with ethics in mind in a few ways in addition to just its purpose. In particular, we considered data privacy concerns with accidentally storing sensitive information from the users' photos, and are avoiding storing photos for that reason. We also considered the potential of spreading misinformation (eg. negative sentiment towards certain plants) by showing unfiltered plant descriptions from an API, which is why we decided to use NatureServe API as it is a trusted non-profit for wildlife conservation data. People's empathy towards their local environment as children substantially affects their attitudes in adulthood. Our app would help create sustainability-minded adults, improving ecological education and connectedness in local communities. It would do this by utilizing many of the same strategies that cause kids to have strong anthropomorphic feelings towards virtual biodiversity, but now targeted at their native species. It would also help make ecological education less abstract, and create excitement about native plants. See README for information on how to run, and google doc for the slides/videos.