Purdue University Calumet

Adventure Preschool
Prepared for: Professor Michael Roller Prepared by: Amanda Jezior-Muha November 26, 2012

Purdue University Calumet

Hammond, IN

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Table of Contents
Adventure Preschool
Mission Vision Statement Problem Statement Solution A Competitive Analysis Educational Research Adventure Preschool Application Areas Basic Navigation Navigational Architecture and Rough Layout Design

1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 6 7 13 13 14 14 16 17

Initial Technical Requirements Application Process Maps Initial Graphical Design

Main Page Levels Level Graphics Levels Level Graphics

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Levels Level Graphics Levels Level Graphics Levels

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Final Screen Shots

Summary

Adventure Preschool: An Educational Application

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Adventure Preschool
Mission
The mission of this project was to conceptualize, scope, and build an educational application that prepares young children for preschool. This simple educational application has been simulated for the Google Nexus S.

Vision Statement
The applications goal is educate and prepare children prior and during preschool. Its targeted age group is children between two and ve years of age. The application will target six areas: Memory Counting Letters (alphabet) Shapes & Colors Languages

Problem Statement
School requires skills that need to be taught to children under the age of ve in order to fully prepare them for classroom lessons and success.

Solution
Conceptualize and design an interactive, entertaining, and educationally based application to prepare children for the classroom.

A Competitive Analysis
While there are numerous amounts of preschool applications, many of them focus on one area of learning. After completing market research, certain themes and/or general trends began to emerge. Below is an analysis on the preschool application market.

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Speech with Milo: Sequencing This application provides children with three cards and requires them to place the cards in the correct sequential order by way of an animated mouse. The stories were chosen by a pathologist of speech. This application allows children to organize time, sentences, and story-telling concepts. Children must use visual clues to follow and anticipate what is going to happen. Wheels on the Bus Wheels on the Bus plays the song in ve languages and allows users to interact actions that take place on the bus. The application uses bold and bright graphics in order to engage users. English, Spanish, German, Italian, and French versions of the song are played for users. Jumpstart Preschool Magic of Learning This particular application provides users with 15 games that teach math, pre-reading, and critical thinking skills. It helps users to master upper and lower case letters with graphics of cows. Shapes, colors, and number recognition are practiced with bug renditions. Preschool: 15 in 1 Kids Pack This is another application that piles in 15 games for users. It is targeted for those two through seven years of age. The application features dozens of sounds, 100 words, alphabet, numbers, sketching, and days of the week. Market Overview Trends included that of cartoon/graphic animals that are meant to engage children. Alphabet and mathematical games were found in several applications. Shapes, colors, and languages were also found separately in multiple applications.

Educational Research
The National Education Association promotes the use of applications in the classroom. The association species and encourages teachers sharing and implementing the use of digital mobile applications in order to teach students with educational concepts and skills. The association also promotes teachers communicate with their students through technology in order to meet different learners needs. The association provides information on using specic language for feedback and praise. They state that using words that are specic and remain respectful are most clear as feedback for students. Continuous feedback gives students the ability to track an gage their progress while learning required skills. The above research suggests that applications are used as tools in the classroom and also gives the sense that they are successful and impactful on students when learning essential skills. It also provides knowledge on the correct language to use as reinforcement; and progress tracking cues.

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Adventure Preschool
Adventure Preschool will include several trending educational areas in preschool applications. The application is relevant because it does not include an over-numerous amount of educational games, but will include those that are vital to preparing for school. Also, the application will use entertaining and engaging agents of learning that will include cartoon animals that interact with children while teaching skills designed as tools for success.

Application Areas
Memory: The application will include cards that feature cartoon animals such as cows, monkeys, ponies, etc. The memory section will include three levels that increase in the number or cards that will be matched to one another. Matching Alphabet: The alphabet is broken down into three separate groups that include 9/9/8 letters respectively. The upper case and lower case versions of these letters are shown and users are asked to correctly match the letters to one another. Counting: Short animations that increase in difculty will depict cartoon agents acting out different animations. The user is then asked to answer specic counting related questions that would be derived from the short animation. I.E. How many ants were carrying food from the picnic basket?

Shapes and Colors: Users are asked to correctly identify different shapes in colors that increase in difculty across three levels. Languages: The days of the week are recited in three different languages that include: English, Spanish, and German.

Basic Navigation
Loading Page: The application will include a loading page because there content may need time to properly load and visual cues will be needed for the user to gage the loading of the application Main Page: the main page will include an exit button, and ve additional buttons for these separate areas of learning for the user. The back button leads to the general iPad interface.

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Learning Area Pages: Each learning area has a main page that includes a brief description of the tasks that will be performed in the area. It will also include a screen shot of the task at hand being completed. Last it will include the three buttons that will denote the different levels of difculty for the learning area. The back button will take the user back to the main page. Level Page: Each page will include either: graphics, animation, video, or audio that will be essential for the perspective tasks to be completed, anticipated, or understood. The back button will lead the user back to the learning are page.

Navigational Architecture and Rough Layout Design

* Please see the sketches and navigational structure below:

Adventure Preschool: An Educational Application

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Adventure Preschool: An Educational Application

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Initial Technical Requirements

Page Loading Page Main Page Memory Home Memory Level 1-3 Matching Alphabet Matching Alphabet 1-3 Counting Home Counting 1-3 Shapes &Colors Languages 1-3 Galaxy Nexus S Specs Height Width Screen (diagonally) Display OS Storage Video Multimedia Graphic, Progress Bar Graphics, Text, Buttons Text, Image, Graphic, Buttons Graphics, Text, Buttons Text, Image, Graphic, Buttons Image, Graphic, Buttons Text, Image, Graphic, Buttons text, Image, Animation, Buttons Text, Image, Graphic, Buttons Audio, Text, Graphic, Buttons Multimedia 4.88 inches 2.48 inches 480x800 pixels Multi-Touch Android Gingerbread 16 GB, 512 MB RAM WVGA 30 fps

*All multimedia will need to meet these specications. Video should sample at 30 frames/ second and saved in .mov or mpeg4. Graphics will need to be designed to t the 4 inches.

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Application Process Maps

Adventure Preschool: An Educational Application

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Adventure Preschool: An Educational Application

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Initial Graphical Design

Main Page
To the left you can see a screenshot of the original graphical design of the main page. The Adventure Preschool logo can bee seen at the top of the page. The main also come equipped with buttons that navigate to the six areas of knowledge: memory, alphabet (or letters), counting, shapes & colors, and language. Below the buttons is a graphic of a schoolhouse meant to t the theme of education and preschool. In the top left of the page is an exit button that will navigate back to the phones application pages.

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Memory Main Page

The memory main page has a header at the top, as well as a back button that navigates back to the Adventure Preschool Main Page. Below the header is a picture/ visual example of the memory game. The page also has a summary of the operation of the game so the user understands what will occur when they proceed. The page includes three additional buttons that indicate each level of the memory game.

Levels
The levels increase in difculty. There is a back button and feedback areas. The main feedback areas below the header indicates if a match was made. In the lower corners of the page you will see a counter that tacks of matches & misses. When the correct number of matches is made then page is advanced to the the level complete page.

Level Graphics
Below are the graphics used in the levels. They are meant to resemble ash cards with cartoon animals. This was shown to be successful in other children aged applications.

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Alphabet Main Page

The alphabet main page has a header at the top, as well as a back button that navigates back to the Adventure Preschool Main Page. Below the header is a picture/ visual example of the alphabet game. The page also has a summary of the operation of the game so the user understands what will occur when they proceed. The page includes three additional buttons that indicate each level of the alphabet game.

Levels
The levels increase in difculty. There is a back button and feedback areas. The main feedback areas below the header indicates if a match was made. In the lower corners of the page you will see a counter that tacks of matches & misses. When the correct number of matches is made then page is advanced to the the level complete page. The levels are broken up into sections of the the alphabet.

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Level Graphics
Below are the graphics used in the levels. They are meant to resemble ash cards with upper and lower case views of the letters in the alphabet.

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Counting Main Page

The counting main page has a header at the top, as well as a back button that navigates back to the Adventure Preschool Main Page. Below the header is a picture/ visual example of the alphabet game. The page also has a summary of the operation of the game so the user understands what will occur when they proceed. The page includes three additional buttons that indicate each level of the counting game.

Levels
Each level is equipped with an animation/short video. The children are to watch the animation and then answer the questions once it has been fully watched.he main feedback areas below the header indicates if a match was made. In the lower corners of the page you will see a counter that tacks of matches & misses. When the correct number of matches is made then page is advanced to the the level complete page.

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Level Graphics
Below are the graphics used in the levels.They are screenshots taken from the short animations. These animations include the cartoon characters from the memory level.

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Numbers & Shapes Main Page

The numbers & shape main page has a header at the top, as well as a back button that navigates back to the Adventure Preschool Main Page. Below the header is a picture/ visual example of the game. The page also has a summary of the operation of the game so the user understands what will occur when they proceed. The page includes three additional buttons that indicate each level of the game.

Levels
Each level is equipped with multiple choice questions. The children are to watch read the question and select what they believe to be the correct question. In the lower corners of the page you will see a counter that tacks of matches & misses. When the correct number of matches is made then page is advanced to the the level complete page.

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Level Graphics
Below are the graphics used in the levels. Shapes were created in different colors and added to the pages. Below are some examples of the shapes used in the color and shape levels.

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Languages Main Page

The languages main page has a header at the top, as well as a back button that navigates back to the Adventure Preschool Main Page. Below the header is a picture/ visual example of the game. The page also has a summary of the operation of the game so the user understands what will occur when they proceed. The page includes three additional buttons that indicate each level of the game.

Levels
Each level is equipped with the days of the week. Each day is enabled as a button. When a day is selected audio can be heard of the day being pronounced in either English, Spanish, or German. In the lower corners of the page you will see a counter that tacks of matches & misses. When the correct number of matches is made then page is advanced to the the level complete page.

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Final Screen Shots

Summary
During the course of building the prototype I came against several hurdles and difculties. I spent countless hours working on different coding options, set-ups, layouts, etc. Despite my very best efforts and exhaustive hours and trials I came up short..........waaaay short. I have never felt defeated or overtaken by any one project or assignment no matter the demands it brings, but this particular project brought me to my knees. The functionality of this application was meant to include cards that ip over, buttons that submit, feedback for matches, counters for matches and misses. It was also intended to include animations as well as audio of different languages. While I learned a great deal in this project, I was also extremely challenged. Though the application didnt turn out the way I wanted it to, I am still proud of the effort and design I created. I truly believe in the concept and still feel that it would be successful if it was fully functional and deployed. Below you can see the nal screen shots of what was created for each level of the application. WIthin the submitted folder you will nd the animations, graphics, and ex le for the application. It is a bittersweet ending to a my undergraduate career at PUC.

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