Kid On The Moon

Develop an interactive app for children that uses smart phone and tablet sensory to locate the Moon (any time of the day, even below horizon), which unlocks current lunar data (phase, distance, etc), and then presents the user options for reading a "Moon" related story, view space agency photos and videos, and/or fun facts about the Moon. The goal of this challenge is edutainment and raising awareness about lunar missions around the world.

Kid On The Moon is an interactive app that fosters curiosity to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

Summary

Kid On The Moon is an interactive app that inspires children 4-8 years old and their families to become passionate about space travel through self-guided exploration of the moon both on and offline.

Insights From Children

Through discussion and testing our Kid On The Moon prototype with kids, we put together our impactful experience:

• Inspire young minds - our team members remember that their lasting interest in space and endless curiosity started young.
• Kids are naturally curious - we want to build upon children’s existing natural curiosity.
• Kids love to be in the driver’s seat and explore - the less we tell kids what to do, the more they feel the experience is their own.
• Kids love to personalize - seeing their own names and pictures makes an experience more memorable.
• Involve kids’ communities - involving family and friends adds relevancy, making the experience more real.
• Link online experiences with offline ones - extending children's online activities to offline adventures solidifies learning in the real world, beyond online platforms.
• Use interactive cues - we use personalized mission badges, an astronaut pledge, and an out-loud countdown so that children are fully immersed in the journey.
• Accessibility - explanations and text are supported by voiceovers and descriptions read aloud, helping children understand what is going on when it is needed.
• Kids' media habits and impact - children at this age prefer a tablet over a smartphone. A tablet is more effective at delivering an immersive experience because of its size and is easier to operate as buttons are larger.

The Opportunity For NASA

We are starting a new chapter in human space exploration. We are going to Mars! To support NASA's ambitious long-term goals we need new generations of astronauts, engineers, and many other inspired and skilled people. We also want everyone in general to stay curious about solar exploration. Only if we have broad and ongoing support, will our journey to Mars be a success.

What Our App Does

We transport children to the moon and beyond. We personalize a child’s astronaut experience with their name, picture, and mission badge. A pledge makes it all official. Our new astronauts are ready for lift-off and board the spacecraft.

After the thrilling countdown and ride on the rocket, they find themselves on the moon. The child embarks on a self-guided exploration of the moon by moving around and touching hotspots which lead to different places on the moon, information, videos and games, including photos and sounds from the Apollo mission. When the child is done exploring, they can touch the Earth to return back home. They can steer their spaceship safely back to Earth by tilting the tablet.

Back at mission control, they can see their earned mission badges and choose future missions. Parents will receive emails with ideas for offline activities that further fuel curiosity and exploration of space. Some ideas are watching the moon in the sky at different phases, making a crater in a sandbox, space-related arts and crafts, or participating in a local space-related event.

The Future

The app can be expanded with more content and games around the moon as well as missions to other places in our solar system. We would add offline activities as well with a focus on space sciences, games, and arts.

The app may be the launchpad for other apps, aimed at children of different ages. These apps can then be made more relevant for different age groups through more complex content and a tone and style that resonates with a particular age group.

Notifications, emails, and social media will keep the connection we create with NASA strong.

Kid On The Moon will foster curiosity and inspire the next generation of space explorers.

The Kid On The Moon prototype lives here:

http://kidonthemoon.org/frame.html

http://kidonthemoon.org/pan/index.html

www.kidonthemoon.org/backtoearth/index.html

http://www.kidonthemoon.org/missioncontrol/frame.h...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KidOnTheMoonApp #KidOnTheMoon

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twKcOmnVf-I

Video Credits:

Music: Fretless Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Visuals: Modification on icons originally made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Photos and videos of the Apollo mission credit: NASA

Linked video content credit: Outer Space: "Time to Shine," The Moon Song by StoryBots

Moon surface image credit: http://astrogeology.usgs.gov