Computer science is taught by Ms.Tarrico. In this class, we started off by learning about web development and coding in HTML and CSS. After that, we began learning the Java programming language through labs and exercises, which were often challenging and covered topics such as Arrays, Arraylists, Iteration, and Decisions. Most of the curriculum aligns with the AP Computer Science A course. Along with this, we participate in the American Computer Science League (ASCL) competition throughout the year.
After a long day at school, kids often struggle with motivation in regard to completing their homework and other household chores. Due to the drastic rise in technology in the past decade, children aged 11 and younger heavily engage in screen time as a major pastime, (PRC, 2020). Around 60% of kids interact with a smartphone, which serves as a major distraction. Along with this, based on the Health Interview Survey-Teen, 50.4% of teenagers ages 12-17 had 4 or more hours of daily screen time (NHCHS, 2024). Due to this high volume of kids who spend their afternoons on phones or screens, they tend to procrastinate important tasks such as chores and homework. Procrastination can be defined as intentionally and habitually putting off something that should be done and around 80-95% of students are struggling with procrastination (Science of mind, 2024). When young students are supposed to be developing practical time management skills and preparing for increased workload in higher levels of school, they are full of major distractions and are developing poor time management and last-minute cramming. Procrastination often leads to reduced academic performance and increased stress and anxiety, especially as the due date gets closer. Additionally, children also lack motivation to complete chores and other daily household needs, with about 76% of children not helping with chores at all (Daily Mail, 2018). Kids who do not have obligations to do chores will, in the future, lack the development of critical responsibility and time management skills. Overall, the issue that this app aims to tackle is that young students are increasingly susceptible to procrastination tactics, leading them to not complete their important tasks such as homework and chores. It is crucial that the younger generations develop the necessary time management skills and avoid procrastination early in their careers to avoid the progression of bad habits as they move on to a more independent life in high school and beyond.
One of the main audiences for this app are elementary and middle school students who struggle with procrastination when attempting to complete homework, chores, or other tasks. It is vital for young students to develop valuable time management skills and responsibility, so our app is looks to establish good habits from a younger age in regard to completing homework and chores. Another view of the app is targeted towards the parents of elementary and middle school students. Parents individually approve tasks that children enter into their to-do lists, allowing them to keep track of their assignments in a timely, user-friendly way. This allows parents to be a part of the fight against procrastination. In addition to that, parents will also be able to enter in their own tasks to, for example, ask their kid to help around the house, encouraging healthy cleaning habits and increased responsibility. The parents will be able to assign specific and personalized rewards that fulfill the budget, timeline, and the desires of the family to ensure that motivation stays at its peak. Using the app, parents will be able to provide reasonable and appropriate rewards to celebrate the student’s success while becoming more aware of the schoolwork and promoting the completion of household chores.
Our proposed app, in the form of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), requires a few core features for its main functionality. One of these features is a two-sided view of the app, for parents and for students, that allows for the addition of task by the child, parental task approval, and parental reward management. With this, students will be able to input their tasks, which get sent to the parent’s view for approval, to ensure that all tasks are reasonable and legit. The parent managed reward system will allow parents to customize rewards for their kids to fulfill their unique desires and budget of the family. The star system of the app is also an important feature that will help ensure motivation. The child is able to earn stars for completing tasks that can be exchanged for rewards. When students are creating a task, they indicate which type of task they are aiming to complete, such as chore or math homework, and a default star value is assigned accordingly. This value is the maximum number of stars that can be earned for that task. As the due date approaches, the star value decreases, so students will be more likely to complete their tasks in a timely manner to secure the most possible stars. Therefore, motivation will be increased, and procrastination will be tackled in a positive manner. The final feature of our app will include a notification system that will alert both the parents and the students. Parents will be alerted when their child has a task pending approval, a task completed, and when a reward is secured. Students, on the other hand, will be notified when their task due dates are fast approaching to serve as a reminder. By utilizing notifications, both parents and students will be able to stay up to date on tasks and their personal responsibilities within the app to ensure that the system is effective, and that procrastination is managed well.
The process of creating our app included initial design brainstorming and development and thorough research of the problem. Next, we designed the user interface by sketching each screen of the users journey. Implementation of the app was done using react native and firebase for cloud storage. Finally, test cases adressing usability, interface, functionality, compatibility, installation, etc. were created and tested.
The Line Art Program incorporated loop control structures and Graphics methods to develop a curved design consisting of only straight lines. I enjoyed working on this assignment as it required a lot of trial and error and watching the design come together at the end was really rewarding.
The Federal Tax Rate Program used selection control structures to determine how much federal tax one must pay based on their marital status and income. To test my program, I used JUnit test cases to ensure that every unique situation is accounted for, which makes the program effective and useful for a variety of people.