Android Apps: Marine Debris, Sea Turtle Watch

“To be a true explorer in science-to follow the unprejudiced lead of pure scientific inquiry - is to be unafraid to propose the unthinkable, and to prove friends, colleagues, and scientific paradigms wrong.” 

-Lynne McTaggart, Author of THE FIELD 

While I was attending Florida Atlantic University in 2013, as a multimedia graduate student, an educational technology program. With some curriculum analysis, I noticed that Mobile App Design was not a current course for . With faculty collaboration and teamwork, the School of Communication and Multimedia department faculty and I created Mobile Design App Courses to enhance student's experience of our degree program. 

As a multimedia artist from FAU's Communication and Multimedia Studies Department, I collaborated with the Environmental Policies class from the Urban Planning Department as well as the College of Computer Engineering and Computer Science to create two Android Applications. I developed my adaptability, flexibility, problem solving skills while working with our team. I am so grateful for our collaboration. Our innovation contributed to solving the problems of the ocean. 

I developed the multimedia content and the interactive media programming. We decided to build the Marine Debris and Sea Turtle Watch App, along with two educational videos. I learned critical thinking, effective communication and interpersonal skills while I mentored the students from the Computer Science and Engineering in MIT App Inventor and other software training, and troubleshooting techniques. 

The Marine Debris app builds awareness about the humungous amount of garbage in the Pacific Ocean called Garbage Island with a Trash Island game that I designed and coded for Android, using MIT App Inventor. Along with my team members, we designed the graphics with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. We added a map to locate the nearest opportunities to help clean the beaches from trash. For our effective communication and presentation, our Marine Debris App and Education and Conservation Video won Design Awards! 

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is floating island of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean and I hope humans can figure out a way to dissolve the problem. By building Marine Debris app and other apps to contribute to the Gamification of Education. 

Sea Turtle Watch App

The Sea Turtle Watch app builds awareness with interactive media programming about the decline of the sea turtle population. We were asked by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton to create them an app. I coded and designed a sea turtle game within the Android App, using MIT App Inventor, to teach how to identify different sea turtles as well as a way to communicate if you found any sea turtles on the beach. We created the Sea Turtle Watch app using data analytics and visualization for sea turtle conservation and with educational technology integration, a  learning game, in hopes to increase learning outcomes. 

I used Adobe Creative Suite and Final Cut Pro in order to develop multimedia content: video, graphics, and audio. I created two videos to communicate the functions of each conservation app. We won two awards for 1st and 2nd place. For our effective communication and presentation, Sea Turtle Watch App and Education and Conservation Video won Design Awards! 

Videos: 

Marine Debris App 

Sea Turtle Watch App 

My experience of developing these two Android Applications increased my skills of creating multimedia content, video production, animation, graphic design, time management, technical software, communication, project management, and interactive programming. 

With my increased awareness of conservation and environmental concerns, I discovered new ways of communicating with technology, and how to manage the lifecycle of projects to a successful completion! 

Further, I developed course material for undergraduate multimedia students as a Teaching Assistant at Florida Atlantic University. 

Upon graduation, I developed an interactive multimedia curriculum using Adobe Creative Suite to enhance student engagement and multimedia content creation at Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth, Florida. 

As an artist, a part of the Lake Worth Artist Community, I was happy to serve!! In Lake Worth, FL, I drew dolphins for  Jill Karlin's Dolphin Dream pastel drawing project for the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival. Every year, as an artist of the West Palm Beach Community and a resident of Palm Beach County, I use to volunteer my time to the Street Festival in any way that I could. So one year, I helped Jill draw her dolphins!  

Dolphin Dream @2012, Lake Worth Street Painting Festival

Lake Worth, FL 

When I was looking for a new healing technique, I went to a Cranial Sacral Therapist and soon discovered my love for dolphins. Sure, I studied them in Sociology class at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, but this was an entirely different angle, Doctor Upledger had proven that dolphins can heal. So I practiced with Justin Roberts at the Upledger Institute, Palm Beach Gardens, FL and we discovered an entirely new field of energy. 

As soon as I tuned into the dolphin consciousness, my body started to perform in a new way. I finally understood what Dr. Upledger was talking about! 

This inspired me to search for others who discovered dolphin healing and I found David, a dolphin shaman, at Dolphin Heart World, in Sedona, Arizona. 

Weekly, I joined Dolphin Heart Healing Circle phone calls for dolphin journeys where we would meditate and tune into the dolphin consciousness. I would also listen to the guided meditation by Linda Shay. 

This increased my creativity, emotional intelligence, and abilities for conflict resolution in and outside my academic life. 

This dolphin discovery is my ultimate belief that the dolphin consciousness is in charge of the oceans and water, and humanity's lesson is to learn how to listen to their hearts and be responsible in conserving the RICH LIFE FORCE in water as it streams from the oceans, home of the whale and dolphin consciousness. 

During sunrise, I experienced calm peaceful early mornings in Palm Beach, I would say hello to the dolphins and then go to Bethesda-By-The-Sea to pray. 

After sunset, after we witnessed a Loggerhead Sea Turtle lay her eggs, and return to the ocean, she shed a tear. 

We returned again, during a full moon's moonrise, we made sure that when the baby sea turtles hatched and started to crawl, they would crawled in the correct direction: towards the ocean. Because of light pollution, the street lights can be brighter than the moon, and thus, confuse the destined direction for the babies. 

I had the privilege of picking up a few sea turtles crawling in the wrong direction, towards the street lights, and I gently placed their fiercely flapping velvety fins in the lapping warm ocean waves for safety so they could start to swim, and continue their journey home.