3 minute read
Brisbane Girls Grammar School Gazette, Issue 2 2022
FROM THE STUDENTS ICT PROJECT
Real Space
Exploring the stars from a digital app
Written by Sandra Jiang (12W), Jordan Havu (12W), Nicole Choo (12B)
Real Space first began as individual projects for our elective Year 12 Technologies subject: Digital Solutions. The School’s Dorothy Hill Observatory allows us to use the telescopes to request images of celestial objects. We then process these using image-editing software and filters to enhance the images and produce unique artistic results. However, currently these records are stored in Excel spreadsheets and on the BGGS network drive—limiting the accessibility to this precious data. Our task was to develop an application proposal that would serve as a solution for managing the School’s growing catalogue of astronomical information and images.
Sandra Jiang (12W), Jordan Havu (12W) and Nicole Choo (12B)
Screenshots from the student-designed and built application
After completing our initial assessment, we found that working on this project was so interesting that we decided to join forces as a team to extend on the project and enter in the Young ICT Explorers competition.
This competition involves creating solutions for real-world problems using technology. Entering as a team required us to combine each of our individual ideas and designs together to form one application.
Through this, we developed the Real Space platform—a dynamic online gallery that will allow the School and wider community to archive and view astronomical data for education and recreational purposes. BGGS staff will have access to a dedicated web-based space science management system where CRUD operations (the ability to create, read, update, and delete) are available. We also incorporated a virtual-reality experience into our proposal, with the idea that students would be able to have a 360° view of the night sky through VR headsets in a specially designed studio.
The whole process involved a lot of research, coding, and considering a human-centered design approach. We learned to use HTML, CSS, JavaScript and JQuery for the front-end design, and NodeJS and MySQL for the back-end setup. During the project, we were able to grow as a team, gaining knowledge on digital solutions to extend our specialised learning. In addition to further developing our problem solving, creativity, and innovation skills, this project has also given us the opportunity to explore the endless opportunities that are possible with today’s technology.
