Fall 2019 Santa Ana Unified School District AppJamboree 1 Recap & Results
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On December 2nd, Dreams for Schools hosted its first AppJamboree of the Fall 2019 AppJam+ season, where students from 6 Orange County middle and high schools presented the mobile applications they had developed over a 10-week period. This AppJamboree was held at the University of California, Irvine and featured a friendly competition between the attending teams.
With four AppJamborees on our track record for this season, we hosted our fourth one of the Fall 2019 AppJam+ season on Thursday December 5th, the second of the two representing the Santa Ana Unified School District. Students from the remaining 5 middle schools of the 9 in the district presented the mobile applications they had developed over a 10-week period with the guidance of their college mentors. The AppJamboree event was held at the University of California, Irvine Alumni center, and featured presentations from 32 teams.
Students from Willard Intermediate, Villa Intermediate, Sierra Preparatory Academy, MacArthur Fundamental & Lathrop Intermediate presented their apps and judges had the momentous task of selecting the top three teams to take the prize. In addition to the friendly judging competition, a "Best Poster" award was voted on by participating students and judges also scored teams to receive a "Best Stage Presentation" award.
Get a glimpse of all of the hard work the students put in this season in their school videos.
1st Place Winners of Google Chrome Books – Expro Turtles from Willard Intermediate
App Name: Keep T.S. (Keep Turtles Safe)
Mentor: Hannah F.
Team Members: Bryan A., Cassidee S., Elizabeth R., Vanessa O., Yara G.
App Description: The main goal of our game is simple: SAVE THE TURTLES! to SAVE THE PLANET! through FRIENDSHIP! Our game is story-driven with 4 Levels. At the beginning, we learn that the main character, Hannah, do not care about turtles however, at level 1 she meets a stranger, who later becomes her friend named, Bryan, who taught her that turtles are to be saved and people who uses plastic straws should be stopped. Bryan gives Hannah a "straw gun" to convert the enemies. The main enemies are people who uses red plastic straws and the main character, Hannah's, goal is to convert these people from using red plastic straws to metal straws to save the turtles from dying (1 enemy converted = 1 turtle saved). As the main character progresses through the different levels she will meet new friends (Cassidee, Elizabeth, Vanessa and Yara) that will tell her why turtles needs to be saved and they will also give her a new weapon to use. There is also a final boss to be defeated in order to win the whole game! We hope you have fun because we had fun creating the story!
Technical Components Used: Vertical and Horizontal arrangements for the main layouts. Canvas mainly for our assets to be placed and where the main game is coded/played. Image sprites to populate the canvas and have the characters interact with each other. Buttons to move, shoot, and switch between screens. And Labels for keeping track of the turtles saved for each level.
Additional Comments:AppJam+ flourished the creative side of my team which challenged our critical thinking for our code. I believe that everyone truly had fun when building this game.
2nd Place Winners of BB-8 Spheros – Area 52 from Villa Fundamental
App Name: Clean Up Your Act
Mentor: Ace L.
Team Members: Aiden S., Cristian G., Francisco P., Salvador R., Sharon R.
App Description: Clean Up Your Act is a local multiplayer game where two players compete to save or destroy the earth. The player at the top of the screen is constantly throwing trash down at the earth to destroy it. The other player at the bottom of the screen moves a shield to block the trash. If the earth is still intact after the timer runs out, the shield player saves the day!
Technical Components Used:Global Variables, Timer, Sound, Music Player, and Arrangements
3rd Place Winners of Amazon Fire Tablets – MAARSBAARS from Villa Fundamental
App Name: Reeeviving Earth
Mentor: Rona C.
Team Members: Alec A., Antonio G., Miroslava V.
App Description:Reeeviving Earth is a game that promotes the reduction of trash and pollution by having the player to catch the trash falling from the sky. The player starts off with 3 lives and each time they miss a piece of trash, they lose a life. If they haven't lost all their lives, the scene changes and the speed of the trash increases every 30 seconds.
Technical Components Used: In this app, we utilized a timer, global variables to hold score as well as remaining lives, and lists to hold the trash image sprites that loop
Best Presentation Winners of Target Gift Cards – DaleX from MacArthur Fundamental
App Name: Escapé Le Zombie
Mentor:Alexandria W.
Team Members: Azuree G., Daniela V., Emily M., Lynne N.
App Description: In our game, try to escape the zombie apocalypse by collecting all the ingredients to save the world! You must successfully pass the first level and collect the first ingredient by stabbing the zombies and avoiding ninja stars. Then, you will move onto to the next level! Here you must solve the clue to collect the ingredients. If you choose the wrong ingredients, you need to restart, pass, and finally save the world!
Technical Components Used: This game utilizes collision detection, a clock and time element, randomizing location functions, moving sprites/animation, audio, buttons, and a canvas that displays the hand drawn sprites and background.
Best Poster Winners of Target Gift Cards – I Don't Know from Sierra Preparatory Academy
App Name: The Invaders
Mentor: Da Sol L.
Team Members: Alejandro L., Andrew V., Johnathan L., Xavier Z.
App Description: The Invaders is a platform game where the soldier must defeat enemies that represent fossil fuels, chemicals, and oils that are harming the city by shooting them. This game brings awareness to pollutants affecting our environment while also making it a fun, and exciting game where the user can be a part of saving the world at the click of a button! They have 3 lives and must beat all the enemies to win.
Technical Components Used: Image sprites, Canvas, Buttons, Horizontal Arrangements, Randomizing sprites when initializing the screen, Audio for winning/losing/jumping, Global variables
This is our second time partnering with the Santa Ana Unified School district and the first time we have brought the AppJam+ program to all 9 of the middle schools in the district. The past two showcases have been a grand display of what the students in this district are capable of. From the posters and presentations to the details in the mobile apps themselves, every student in attendance put their best foot forward and demonstrated the hard work put in over just 10 short weeks. App development is no small task - condensing the development process into just a short 10 weeks sounds nigh impossible. Yet these students faced these challenges head on and with style, evidenced by the technical sophistication of their presented apps.
Thank you to all the attendees of the Appjamboree 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.
A huge thank you to all of our partners for helping to make this a reality. Thank you Kingston Technology, Kay Family Foundation, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, Sun Family Foundation, Croul Family Foundation, Cox, Wells Fargo, Western Digital Foundation, Union Bank, & Luna Grill.
Thank you to our judges who joined us from different companies.
Photos from the event are available at this link! Support us, see photos & stay in touch through our Social Media! Like us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
