There's An App For That

An EAST project from Cross County High - A New Tech School

In today’s society, we use apps for everything. Tracking finances, investing, staying connected. Have you come across an app geared towards helping navigate and learn your local parks’ history recently? Thanks to Macie McCommon, Ciara Stephens, and Lexi Jarret, all ninth-grade EAST students at Cross County High School, the people of their community now have this access at their fingertips. With the assistance of their facilitator, Jason Blake, these students created an immersive 360° tour of the Parkin Archeological State Park Museum and became a 2020 Congressional App Challenge Winner.

Where did the project idea originate?

Jason: This project began with an idea from one of our community partners who wanted to take people on a trip through history by way of the St. Francis River. We proposed the idea as part of our Museums on Main Street Waterways project but have since expanded beyond the waterway and it now encompasses the entire park. Since COVID-19, we have had to adjust some of our original plans, but we are still hoping, in the future, to fulfill the original vision of this project.

Lexi: Within the app you are able to navigate using points of interest that allow you to move around to different areas and also to view content such as high resolution images and video snippets that give a deeper look at life along the St. Francis River throughout history.

What inspired you to complete the project? If it is not complete, what inspires you to keep going?

Macie: We worked with a ton of community members to collect footage and stories about the park’s history and life on the St. Francis River. We went out and filmed footage for a 360° tour. We collected footage for almost a year and a half, and then, COVID-19 hit. We knew that we had to figure out how to help the park stay relevant. The project was nearly done, so our goal became to help the parks remain open and relevant for the future.

What challenges have you encountered in trying to complete the project?

Macie: The obvious challenge has been COVID-19, but in trying to work through that issue, we found the solution to completing this project. When everything shut down, it was harder to get field trips and interviews. We were about 50 percent done when we left for Spring Break and never returned to school. Not being able to meet regularly sharpened our planning skills. They were essential to making sure we didn’t forget anything when we did get the chance to work with our partners from the city.

Another challenge we faced was what to do with all of the information we collected. Mrs. Shannon Sullivan — community leader from the city — once told us that it’s easy to get too much information, and sorting through it all can be difficult, which we found true. We just chipped away until it told the story we felt we needed to tell. Once we got all the footage, we also faced the problem of what to do with it. That was probably our biggest hurdle. It wasn’t until we sat down and looked at how COVID had impacted museums that we investigated, creating a 360° tour and incorporating our footage into footage we had of the waterways.

How many times did you build or test your project before it became functional? If you are still making it, please tell me how close you are to completing it?

Macie: We spent most of the time just trying to figure out how to put it all together and what the product would be. Once we had a clear idea of the software we would use, the first version took approximately two weeks to create. We have updated it several times, with the most recent being over the past weekend, to work out a bug that was causing our interest points (buttons) to not work on a mobile device. Once it was created, we spent about a week learning how to put it on our website and make it functional.

What success have you experienced in the project, whether involving technology or on a personal level?

Macie: In this project, I would say our most significant success was winning the Congressional App Challenge. While working on this project, we felt like we kept running into dead ends on where to go and what to do, so we needed this win. It helped us feel like we accomplished something special.

We used Adobe Captivate software; finding that tool helped us put it all together. It also opened doors to creating other projects in our community. Since being recognized for the App Challenge, we have been contacted by our State Representative and Arkansas State Parks about getting our app on their website.

Jason: I think one of the biggest successes I saw in this project was the student growth throughout the process. Macie started this project as a leader in our program, but she avoided diving too deep into any technology. In the end, she found the solution software and built the bulk of the program.

Lexi spends most of her time working on live video projects and putting together interviews in the sports world. Her work on this project pushed her to plan more detailed and intentional interviews, where in the past, she would cruise into an interview basing her questions on the performance she just saw or knowledge of the subject. This was a new and unexplored world for her.

Ciara is extraordinarily talented; her creativity and vision are on a whole different level than those around her. She was typically reserved and avoided working in groups; by the time this project was over, it seemed her entire demeanor had shifted. We can confidently put her in front of anyone. For me, student growth will always be the ultimate success of anything that happens in my program and has definitely been a defining characteristic of the project.

Has being a part of projects in EAST changed your friendships?

Ciara: Having project partners has allowed me to meet amazing people with similar interests and presented an opportunity to talk to new people, which allowed me to get out of my shell. Before I came into EAST, I couldn’t speak to anyone, but now I can make friends daily. I am excited to talk with new people. This change will impact me for the work I do in this program and prepare me to accomplish greater things in the future than I could have without EAST.

Has EAST helped you grow as a student or as a person?

Macie: EAST has helped me grow as a person because it has allowed me to have many opportunities to explore the different things I enjoy doing. Winning this challenge has helped me become more confident in my work and more confident in presenting and talking to others in public.

Has EAST helped you grow as a facilitator or as a person?

Blake: As an EAST facilitator, I have developed more empathy through our work with others. I have always enjoyed hearing other people’s stories, but helping others either solve a problem or tell their story to give their experiences further validation resonates with me. Since my first year as a facilitator, I find myself looking at the world with new eyes and always looking for a way to effect positive change.

What do your family/friends or community think about the project? Have they helped you move forward in any way?

Blake: Recently, I talked with a teacher at our elementary school, and they told me they found the app and used it in their class. I thought that was neat because the students created something that was being used outside of their direct involvement. Typically, our projects are connected to one event or purpose, but this has a life of its own and can be used for so many purposes by anyone with an internet connection.

What do you want people outside of EAST to know about the project?

Macie: I want people outside of EAST to know that the finished product isn’t always how the project started and that you don’t always know the result. We worked on this project for a while, and we were not sure of its turnout, but everything came together all at once.

To view Immersive 360 tour of the Parkin Archeological State Park Museum, visit eastcchs.tech.