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LEARNING ABOUT AND EXPERIENCING HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES IN A FUN, INTERACTIVE WAY USING AN APP

The companion app for a four-week sustainability project at school

An app that’s catching on across the country

Human health is deeply intertwined with the health of the planet. However, teaching pupils the necessary skills relating to sustainability and environmental awareness is often a challenge for teachers. Working together with Blue Marble Health GmbH and the First Mover health insurance providers Audi BKK and Pronova BKK, iteratec has explored how content can be taught in a playful way and, based on a four-week sustainability project for pupils, has developed an app.

How can teaching content be presented in such a way that pupils are motivated to engage with the topics of their own accord and with enthusiasm, even outside school? iteratec has developed an app based on gamification.

The content is presented in a playful way and what has been learnt can be applied directly in everyday life. Short videos, interactive quizzes, daily missions and a points system with class rankings make using the app an entertaining experience. This makes learning fun and reinforces skills in the very contexts where they will be needed later on. The support provided by the app is a key unique selling point for the teaching programme. As a result, the project has already been successfully implemented in several schools and has received very positive feedback from teachers and pupils alike. The app, which is fully accessible, is now being rolled out nationwide.

Communicating health for people and the planet in a simple way

Three smartphone screens side by side, displaying various apps or functions, including a financial overview, a video and a form.

A healthy diet, sufficient exercise and sustainable ways of living are not only integral to a balanced and healthy lifestyle, but are also socially essential in the context of climate change. To safeguard the health of all ecosystems, Blue Marble Health GmbH has developed a series of lessons for pupils based on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

It equips pupils from Year 9 onwards with the skills they need to make healthy and sustainable decisions independently in the future. To encourage greater interaction and practical application in everyday life, iteratec developed and implemented the idea of an accompanying app. The Blue Marble Health app is at the heart of the teaching programme.

Daily missions that keep you motivated

To start with, the pupils choose a mission: cycling to school, eating fewer animal products, or throwing away less food. Then the four-week challenge begins.

The Blue Marble Health app is designed to present the learning content in an engaging and light-hearted way. Through gamification, learning becomes a game in which you can earn points. Pupils are encouraged to get involved through daily missions, are rewarded with new points and can even compete against each other within their class. This boosts motivation.

During the app’s design, particular attention was paid to accessibility, ensuring that absolutely everyone can take part. This includes the legibility and colour scheme of text and interface elements, as well as the adaptation of the screen reader’s text-to-speech function for people with visual impairments. In this way, iteratec has succeeded in developing a fully accessible app to promote greater inclusion in education.

Another important aspect is the protection of minors’ data. To this end, an access code solution has been developed that requires only minimal information.

Procedure

From a technical perspective, the app was developed using the Flutter framework. This allows a single codebase to support multiple platforms, such as Android and iOS. This not only saves time during development but also provides greater freedom when designing features. iteratec opted for Appwrite as its backend service. This lightweight backend solution enables the application to run quickly and securely.

As the solution is also open source, it can be hosted on German servers, thereby ensuring independence from major US providers.

A digital champion beyond the confines of school

Blue Marble Health GmbH worked closely with iteratec’s student laboratory (SLab) right from the start. Together, they developed the idea into a complete app concept. The students also defined the app’s design and functionalities through their design work.

The app has been available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store since early 2023 and has already been tested by several school classes, who have provided very positive feedback. The topics strike a chord with the spirit of the times, and the app is the ideal platform for presenting the content in a way that is relevant to everyday life. It is precisely for this reason that the app is of interest not only to schools. Several company health insurance schemes, such as AudiBKK and PronovaBKK, have recognised its potential for businesses and added the app to their portfolio. Further features to develop the app are already planned.

The development of the Blue Marble Health app with iteratec was a very dynamic process. Ideas were implemented quickly and effectively. The developers themselves contributed ideas on how the app could be further improved.

Lars-Hendrik Wassenaar, Managing Director of Blue Marble Health GmbH

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