A cute Java project I created last summer to encourage students at my local Kumon center!

Last summer, I was a Math and English instructor at my local Kumon center. I had just completed Grade 12 computer science and Java was the only programming language I had learned. A particular student of mine struggled to find the motivation to complete her work. One day she decided to bring her stuffed animals to cheer her along, and she completed her homework with more enthusiasm than ever. Inspired by her, I developed a program in my free time using Java called "The Grantham Plaza Kumon Prize Pet," where students would adopt a virtual pet, log their completed homework and receive prizes! I spoke to students and instructors about exactly what they looked for in such a program and adapted the application to their needs. It was my first introduction to software development. It has been gratifying to hear that the kids enjoy completing their homework and leveling up their pets every week. I hope that with my newly developed skills I can create a new web-app version of this game!

Note: all data is locally stored in .txt files

The cartoon cat and dog images are from GIPHY and all credit goes to the original artists.

Each student logs-in, and is greeted with their “Grantham Plaza Kumon Prize Pet”: A dog or cat named by the student! This pet receives points for every completed homework booklet the student returns, and receives additional points when the student has completed an entire week in a row! Each time a prize pet “levels up” the student receives prize tokens which can be exchanged for real prizes from our treasure box!

1. Open the MyKumonPrizePet folder and run MyKumonPrizePet.jar (application must be in the same folder as students.txt, PNG and DATES folders in order to work properly)
2. Check our src>MyKumonPrizePet to take a look at my source code!
3. To create a student, click the plus button and enter the password "kumon" (this was added just so kids would not create new accounts for fun)
4. Log in by entering the student's name (in the reading or math section respectively)
5. Each day the student completes their homework, collect points!