Android App Development
In this activity, students act as software engineers to develop an Android application.Copyright California Department of Education Diagnostic Center of Central California http://www.dcc-cde.ca.gov/ (left); National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Global Climate Change http://climate.nasa.gov/news/777 (center); Tucson Police http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/police/android-app-crime-tips (right)
Students develop an app for an Android device that utilizes its built-in internal sensors, specifically the accelerometer. The goal of this activity is to teach programming design and skills using MIT's App Inventor software (free to download from the Internet) as the vehicle for learning. The activity should be exciting for students who are interested in applying what they learn to writing other applications for Android devices. Students learn the steps of the engineering design process as they identify the problem, develop solutions, select and implement a possible solution, test the solution and redesign, as needed, to accomplish the design requirements.
As students create Android applications that performs specific functions, guided by the steps of the engineering engineering design process, they are doing just what software engineers do as they develop applications that we all encounter on a daily basis. This includes business software, communication software, compilers, computer graphics, and more. Ultimately, students must plan what the application will do, decide what it looks like, decide how to structure the software, test and edit to ensure the app works correctly. Thus, students act as software engineers in this hands-on application of the engineering design process.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Design a mobile app for an Android device.
- Create a mobile app for an Android device using MIT's App Inventor.
- Apply the software/system (engineering) design process.