PYLUSD & AppJam+ Fall 2017 Showcase Finale #1 Recap & Results
December 7, 2017
AppJam+ Spring 2018 SAUSD Showcase Finale Recap & Results
May 29, 2018

AppJam+ Fall 2017 Showcase Finale #2 Recap & Results

The 2017 Fall AppJam+ Program concluded with the 2nd Showcase Finale on December 6th with students from 4 Middle/Jr High Schools & 1 High School. Dreams for Schools partnered with the Orange County Center for International Trade Development to bring AppJam+ to Portola High School students and have them build apps with the theme of Global Trade & Business. The Showcase finale event was held at UC Irvine with 18 presentations by 14 middle school teams and 4 high school teams.

With nearly 100 middle school students from Alamitos Intermediate Boys & Girls Club Garden Grove, St. Margaret's Episcopal School, Harbor Day School, Mariners Christian School, and 20+ high school students from Portola High School, judges had an incredibly tough task to select 4 four winners to take the prizes and 1 winner for the high school category. In addition to the friendly judging competition, the event included a prize for Best Poster, which all participating students voted on.

View videos from each school here!
Results

Center for International Trade Development Category Winner – Naropo Productions
App Name: Global Entrepreneur
Mentor: Kameron B.
Team Members: Andrew F., Aaron B., Cameron F., Venkat K., Aryan E.
App Description: Global Entrepreneur is a simulation game where the player controls an entrepreneur trying to spread his or her product worldwide. The player must reach a targeted amount of customers with their product before their competitor does while bolstering their company with various upgrades. As the player progresses, random events can either help or hinder them in their pursuit and the competitor player continues to expand their company as well. The player is assisted along the way through partnerships with various global companies that can help them increase their rates and work their way to victory!
Technical Components Used: Databases (heavily utilized), image editing, variables, math (rates, percentages), randomization.


1st Place Winners of Google Chrome Books – Kansas Kitties from Mariners Christian School
App Name: Kitty Revolution
Mentor: Tu N.
Team Members: Spence R., Peter T., Luke D., Keegan D., Connor A.
App Description: Our game helps elementary school and middle school students practice math skills while helping the Kitties take back Kansas from the treacherous Ghost Pepper Geese. Players help the kitties scratch and hairball-throw their way through the end of level, hiding in houses when the hordes of geese become too overwhelming. Unfortunately, these houses are home to geese math sympathizers that force you to do math problems in exchange for protection. There are two levels: basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for elementary schoolers and pre-algebra for middle schoolers. The longer you stay in the house for protection, the more difficult and quicker the math questions become. After defeating the geese, the player must defeat Mother Goose to take back Kansas. Come join the Kitty Revolution!
Technical Components Used: Timers were used for each individual sprite to simulate movement and damage. Various lists were used to create the list of problems and answers; a random number generator takes the index from the problem list and answer list to dynamically create the problems. Functions were brought to make the code readable, formulating a bulk of the algorithm. GarageBand was used to create all of the musical components. Piskel was used to generate some of the sprites.


2nd Place Winners of Raspberry Pi Kits – WDEK from Mariners Christian School
App Name: Space Escape!
Mentor: Darryl M.
Team Members: Shane A., Madison C., Lillian S., Kent W., Jenna P.
App Description: Space Escape follows a crew of astronauts trying to evacuate from their ship in order to avoid a disaster! Each crew member has to grab their materials and answer various STEM-related questions (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) in order for everyone to to make their escape!
Technical Components Used: Touch input, Piskel (students make their own pixelated sprites/backgrounds), buttons, timers.
Additional Comments: The biggest obstacle WDEK had to overcome was their creative differences when thinking of an app to build (Personally, I learned that 5th grade girls think very differently from 7th grade boys).These students had plethora of ideas and only a few weeks to implement them. I'm proud of what they built in that time, but I know that if they were given more time to work with AppInventor that they would been able to do so much more.


3rd Place Winners of Amazon Fire Tablets & Student Favorite Best Poster Poster Award Winners of Solar Robot Kits – Cool Name Pending from Mariners Christian School
App Name: Cosmic Critters
Mentor: Erika L.
Team Members: Mitchell B., Evan H., Dylan T., Abby T.
App Description: Cosmic Critters is a futuristic space exploration game filled with cute but tough critters inhabiting three different colorful planets in the Snickers Galaxy. Don’t let his adorable face fool you -goofy main character Roller is a (mad) scientist collecting data for a space organization on his home planet for research. Silly and scatterbrained Roller lands on each planet, but always forgets where he parks his spaceship. Help guide Roller back to his spaceship by helping him through challenging terrain of obstacles and not so cuddly critters by answering a plethora of stimulating science trivia.
Technical Components Used: The main technological components utilized and implemented were multiple screens, canvas, image sprites, clock, and audio.
Additional Comments: All backgrounds and images was made by the team from scratch, and most music and sounds were also made by the students.


4th Place Winners of Makey Makey Devices – Creative Gamers from Alamitos Intermediate Boys & Girls Club of Garden Grove
App Name: Saving Halloween
Mentor: Phuc N.
Team Members: Chris P., Jay M., Oliver F., Vincent T.
App Description: An quest to save Halloween from the Villainous Red Devil. Join us on an adventure to defeat the Devil and his minions using Mathematics. Save Halloween, save the world!
Technical Components Used: Audio, lists, button, canvas, timer, draggable image sprites, dynamic changes in image, label, and button.
Additional Comments: If there were more time, the students would want to implement an attack animation and more stages of combat.

Closing Remarks

Each year the level of technical sophistication and depth of design that the students achieve in their apps is astounding & greater! The students were bold, enthusiastic, inspiring and impressive as they presented not only at their tables, but also on stage in front of a large audience. The videos, presentations & posters students make in support of their app improve each year, as well as the breadth of technical skills the students learn in the areas of game design, graphic editing tool, and sound editing!

Thank you all for your support of a program that not only helps participants gain technical skills and knowledge of possible STEM career paths but also increases each participant's belief in themselves and their aptitude for a career in STEM fields.

Thank you to our judges Shannon Alfaro, Eddie Tabeta, Mark Percy, Chris Lynch, Lynn Stewart, Janeth Majarrez, and Alejandra Landa. A shoutout to our judges from the OC Center for International Trade Development Lynn, Alejandra & Janeth!

A special thank you to our partners: UC Irvine, CSU Fullerton, SparkFun Electronics, Kay Family Foundation, Croul Family Foundation, Ties.com, Lollicup Diamond Jamboree.

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