Name: Mathstronauts

Target Audience: Students in grades 5-12

The Challenge: Currently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students have had to switch to remote learning. This switch has revealed inequity issues around technology accessibility and digital fluency. While not every child has a laptop that they can use, many do have access to a phone or tablet where an application can connect them to their education. As such, we are requesting the development of a Mathstronauts education app that can be downloaded onto a phone or tablet.

The Solution: The application may allow students to be able to (as you see fit):

• Create a student profile
• Access registration information (what course(s) they are registered for/completed and certificates they have been issued)
• Register and pay for upcoming courses easily
• Access classroom content (we use Google Classroom, so a connection to their google classroom via the app, through which they can easily watch lesson recordings, look at slides, etc.)
• See their grades, accomplishments, and get additional recognitions (eg. Way to go! screen when they submit an assignment).
• Have a way to share their work/experiences with others (eg. when they develop a game in our programs, they can share the link to their game with others to play it)

The above is a general idea for an app that will significantly boost our students' ability to access our programs, as well as our ability to track, engage with and recognize our students. The application will also be a solution that helps retain students and promote the idea of learning continuity.

Background: Mathstronauts is a registered non-profit organization located in Hamilton and founded in 2016. We design, develop and deliver inclusive and equitable quality STEM education for middle & high school students (grades 5 - 12). Using a multidisciplinary project-based learning (PjBL) approach, our mission is to remove barriers to STEM education to empower young people to develop STEM skills focused on digital literacy and coding.

Possible Blockers:

• Need to significantly limit the scope

What makes this a strong idea:

• A lot of potential for future work here