Wouldn’t it be great if there were an app that allowed any volunteer to help The American Red Cross and emergency services triage sick people after a hurricane?
Well, our middle schoolers just made one!
As part of Mr. Robbie Riehn’s STEM class at Perry County Middle School, students have learned to use code to create an app that provides information on the symptoms of common diseases found in a hurricane-recovery zone. Coding creates a set of instructions for computers to follow. It basically translates human-language instructions into the language of computers and mobile devices like phones and tablets.
“My students used the MIT App Inventor to create the app, which allows someone to choose from the different types of diseases associated with natural disasters like hurricanes and flooding,” Mr. Riehn said. “Our app allows you to choose water-borne diseases, vector- (insect) borne diseases, and diseases associated with crowding. The students created those buttons which take you to a list of that type of disease, such as cholera, dengue fever, or malaria.”
“We then programmed the app to be clickable, so it will open an audio file that gives the symptoms and other information about those diseases,” said eighth-grader Elijah Richardet. “Anybody can listen to that information and know where to direct that person for help in the disaster center.”
This is Mallory Esselmann’s first experience with coding. “This has been really interesting,” she said. “I am liking all of it.”
Mr. Riehn said that the project is progressing well. “They’ve all learned how to make the audio play in the app. Our next step is to program the audio to stop playing!”
The app provides information about diseases associated with natural disasters and is designed to be used by volunteers to triage sick people after a hurricane and flooding.
Students are inserting audio clips into the app, activated by buttons they have programmed to play when clicked.
