Débutantes #5
The Bookworms
Our application aims to encourage people of all ages to read. It allows users to make more efficient use of their screen time. Instead of spending time scrolling on screens, we offer a way to use them for a better purpose—reading to expand your knowledge and cultivate yourself further!
Technical Elements
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Learning Journey
Learning Journey
We learned that teaching coding to young girls requires patience, creativity, and the ability to break down complex concepts into simple, engaging steps. We used AI tools like Claude can serve as an accessible learning companion helping the girls understand coding logic, debug errors.
We faced several challenges, particularly in keeping the girls engaged and building their confidence when they hit roadblocks. We overcame this by encouraging a trial-and-error mindset and celebrating small wins along the way. We also learned to adapt our explanations on the fly depending on each girl's learning pace and style.
On the technical side, the team deepened our own understanding of app development by actually building alongside the participants rather than just instructing them. Teaching something is often the best way to truly learn it.
We used MIT App Inventor as our primary development platform .
Online tutorials and MIT App Inventor's built-in documentation and community forums
Overall, this experience taught us that the most important resource was not a tool or a tutorial — it was creating a safe, encouraging space where young girls felt empowered to build something of their own.
Ethics
Our app was designed with inclusivity and safety at its core. Since it targets users of all ages including children we made sure it contains no harmful content, no personal data collection, and no external links that could expose users to unsafe material. The interface is simple, calm, and distraction-free, encouraging meaningful screen time rather than mindless scrolling.
From an environmental standpoint, we were mindful of our app's digital footprint. By building on MIT App Inventor, we avoided unnecessary heavy features that consume excessive processing power or battery life. The app is lightweight by design no ads, no trackers, no unnecessary background processes.
Most importantly, our app promotes reading as a positive alternative to passive screen consumption. Rather than contributing to the problem of mindless phone use, we built a tool that turns screen time into learning time for everyone, at any age.
