Lunapp

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.

Hi and thanks to all of you for checking our pitch. We are a team of 4 students who are studying at the IT University of Copenhagen: 3 innovative business minded and creative thinkers together with one software expert who is the core of our team. Since one of our team members could not be here, it is important to note that he was the motivator for the challenge- working at the kindergarten led him to understanding of how important it is for kids to play in order to learn. Edutainment was the main goal of our final product and we believe that we have achieved it through unique game changing features.

With life as hectic as it is, many of us just go about our daily routines and never look up and wonder at the stars. Teaching kids and encouraging them to know more about the moon and space is a life changing aspect to all humanity and entire species. Future generations are the ones to take care of our precious Earth and global challenges on it. Moon is the one affecting so many of them. And the challenge is to get the attention of kids as well as raise the awareness of its importance in our everyday lives.

The target group of kids from 6 to 10 years old was chosen since this group starts solving various types of problem individually in various creative manners. We know that at such age kids get mostly attracted to something specific and here is where our unique product appears in their world. [show the app] This is Lunapp. As the kid enters the app, one is able to see the visual graphs of entering the moon where different actors appear: a satellite that allows kid to read upon the fun news about space, a rocket that raises awareness about lunar missions around the world as well as Armstrong telling a story in a visual way. These are the basic aspects that we got covered, but due to time constraint it is mostly important to focus on the unique game changing features of the app. First of all, a kid is able to click `Find Me` flag that will guide to a real-life dimension of detecting the moon at any time of the day, even below horizon. We have covered the technical part of detecting the moon even when it is below the horizon covered as well- we can tell you more about it when the time is our friend. Another game changing feature - we got the the little spacekid on the surface on the moon- that is you as a kid. Clicking it enters the gamified and fun way of learning more about the moon. Here kid will find own territory on the moon where various achievements will encourage one to learn more. For example, a research station will be unlocked once the app has been downloaded as well as marking a favorite photo will make a `photographer` to join kid's team and show interesting videos and galleries from NASA. And many many more cool features. We all know that achievements and different awards motivate us! Not making it social at the targeted age group was considered- it is only healthy competition that can be implemented for such kids in order to make them learn and not compete. Parents must be able to have control over the time restrictions to avoid addictiveness.

Realizing the idea will attract kids` attention and encourage them to learn more about the space in a funny and interesting way. To make it happen we need both the financial support and the society's approval. This product has a future of targeting broader segments by implementing the social interaction what will encourage the competition considering parental control over it as well as learning more about other space bodies. Remember: kids learn through playing. And our app is a sandbox for the minds of Earth`s future.

• mooncalc.org APIs
• Google and Google Scholar
• PopApp
• Javascript
• NASA`s website: nasa.gov
• 3rd party code libraries
• Analog material for prototyping (eg. scissors, cardboard, print-outs, etc.