Scolastica

Inspiration

Many teachers in our school district complain about the scarcity of classroom supplies and are forced to use their own money to buy supplies since the school district does not include them in its budget. School districts often put their money into more prestigious and high revenue activities such as athletics. For example, in our district, they find money to pay for $2 million worth of turf maintenance while that money could be used to get enough textbooks or dry erase markers for a classroom. In addition, students are also drained of their money supply even before college starts. Students see test prep materials imperative to their success in the SAT or ACT start at $30 and go up to $100. If students want to save money, they go to the library and check out books. The only downside is that they won’t be able to write in it, which defeats the purpose of the practice. We wanted to make an app where we can provide materials to teachers and students that need them.

What it does

This app allows the user to choose whether they are a student, teacher, or a volunteer. You must then register your name and your state. From here, based on their title, they are prompted to either enter the school supplies they want, the books they wish to sell. Or what they want to donate. It shows a list of requested supplies and available books. The volunteer then decides which supply they wish to donate and enter the time at which they will drop the supplies. This information is automatically sent to the teacher so that they can pick up the supplies.

How we built it

We built our app using Appery.io. Using various buttons, inputs, and navigation tools, we were able to construct a working app.

Challenges we ran into

One of the main challenges we faced in this process was the fact the the background was not able to change. In order to make the app much more presentable we would have liked to have improved its aesthetics by being able to change the font of the text as well as being able to modify the background.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Each hackathon we have attended has held a different lesson; we learned presentational skills, information about different API’s and coding languages, and how to implement our unique skills to create a single, successful app. Even though the previous apps we created were not as efficient as we hoped they would be, this app’s functionality and compatibility with iOS and Android devices as well as its purpose shows how we have grown as hackers.

What we learned

One big thing that was learned in this process was the value of patience. Even though many of the functionalities that we hoped to input into our app turned out to not function properly, having the drive to give it our best shot to the end really helped boost our spirits. It took us a lot of time to figure out a few components and had to be patient throughout the project.

What's next for Scolastica

Hopefully, with more edits and major adjustments to the app we can be able to launch it on a nationwide scale. In this way, no supplies are being wasted and can be given to people who actually need them. In addition, separating the things needed by grade level will be helpful in the long run. The overall goal of the app is to successfully provide students and teachers all over the nation that need materials.