Schools

San Carlos Mom Makes Learning Fun In The Age of Apps

Nirupama Bala's latest app is getting raves, positively altering how children learn.

Last year, I met San Carlos mom Nirupama Bala inside Vanilla Moon Bakery where she explained her first venture into iPad applications; a tool to help children learn how to write the alphabet, and idea that came to her when she saw her own five-year-old son struggling.

“He had started kindergarten and learning the alphabet and he’s still following things I was doing when I was a child,” she said. “Nothing had changed in 35 to 40 years. The question was, can we do something interesting and sort of fun and help them learn?”

The app – called TraceRight - debuted on Feb. 26 2011 and quickly began topping the most downloaded educational app lists.

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A year later, and Nirupama has her own company, Frolyc, where she is a fulltime developer and engineer, working alongside two other moms on a part-time basis to create these apps.

And now, the three-person mom squad have unveiled their latest creation: an app entitled “Murky Reef,” a marine science based story that engages kids in the story of a fish named Puff, the reef he lives on, and the ravenous shark Ogee who threatens his home. In order to save the reef, kids must correctly answer reading, math and critical thinking problems at various stages.

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The app is loaded with 18 different sea characters, teaching kids simultaneously about science and the ecosystem.

Nirupama holds master’s degree in biotech from Auburn University, and before motherhood, had a full-time career in engineering, and a past of creating apps for Facebook. She was experienced using coding algorithms to illustrate, and turned her knowledge into an entrepreneurial venture.

A San Mateo resident for years, she and her family moved to San Carlos in 2005. Their son, 5, attends kindergarten at Arundel Elementary and their daughter, 2, attends Edison Montessori.

Bala told me she spent months drawing her first app in Mead notebooks, tweaking the details, and when she was near finished, she brought the app to Ms. Polati’s class in Room 4 at Arundel. There, the kids were more than happy to help her test her new creation.

Today, she’s getting raves on her new app at sites like The Online Mom, and looks forward to a full-time career as a developer.

Murky Reef is for the iPad (iOS 4.3 or later) and is offered as a free version, full version, and in 5 smaller apps that address the specific content areas outlined above. Murky Reef is recommended for Kids (Ages 5 to 9) for its excellent graphics and elementary-level educational concepts.

Compatibility: iPad (iOS 4.3 or later)


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