ME: Misinformation Education

Inspiration

We were inspired to make this app when we asked around our local elementary, middle, and high schools for student struggles, and a one of the main issues was misinformation in media. We got the idea to make it a game after asking siblings, who were in elementary and middle school, what they thought of videos they had to watch in class (such as drug-avoidance videos), and they admitted that they felt bored and were prone to losing attention when forced to watch them. They told us they would much rather learn through an interactive game, so the idea was born.

What it does

Our app leads the player through an interactive game where the player needs to defeat an internet supervillian, Ms. Information (see what we did there?). They do this by learning how to spot misinformation and then applying their new knowledge to missions where they identify key red flags in articles online. They can then convert Ms. Information's minions to their side, and once they get enough, they can defeat her.

How we built it

We built the app on code.org's app lab, and it features custom articles and graphics. There are also numerous resources they can access from the app, which help them learn more. While much of the programming was done with the block code, we occasionally had to switch to Javascript in order to code more efficiently.

Challenges we ran into

We faced many challenges. Straight off the bat, we were stuck on an idea for a while. We interviewed students and teachers throughout our local schools, and finally came up with the misinformation game idea. Once we began coding, however, we ran into another roadblock. None of us had experience with Javascript, so we had to learn the fundamentals of the coding language in order to properly implement some of our procedures and functions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

During the development of the app, our team members learned several important skills, such as Javascript programming, video editing, and digital art. These were all learned in a relatively short amount of time, and we feel as if we have grasped it well. We are proud of our accomplishments in that regard.

What we learned

As mentioned above, we have learned skills like Javascript programming, video editing, and digital art, through this project. We have also learned more about spotting misinformation. Although the articles inside the app are simple because it is built for 3rd to 5th graders, we were able to look into misinformation more in depth, and we've learned a lot about how to spot it and avoid it online.

What's next for ME: Misinformation Education

As of now, we only have a limited amount of missions because of the need for us to custom-make articles suitable for our purposes, but we are working on making an article generator. This will broaden the game, as well as making it infinately replayable. We are also working on adding higher difficulty level so that our game can be enjoyed by older students as well.