Queen of Science - 9 New Features

For the following four months, Fern’s days have consisted of making lessons and uploading them to Simply Explained. Even though she has been doing difficult and monotonous work, Fern has remained strong and focused!

Fern finished making math lessons for grades 9 through 12. After math was completed, Fern started making lessons for other subjects such as biology, chemistry, and psychology. Instead of making these lessons for grades K-12, Fern made these lessons for introductory to advanced levels. The most advanced level is the highest level taught to university freshmen in this universe.

Tonight, Fern once again snuck out of her crib and is sitting on the office chair. Her fingers are dancing across the keyboard and her little eyebrows are cutely scrunched up. With the computer’s light shining onto Fern’s face, the darkness under Fern’s eyes becomes visible. However, the apparent fatigue is outshined by how bright and excited Fern’s eyes twinkle. She has lightly flushed cheeks and looks like she has been reinvigorated!

Fern is ecstatic because, after almost five months of toiling, she is done making website’s content!

After typing the last couple words, Fern takes a moment to celebrate. She relaxes her body, leans back in the chair, and closes her eyes. For this brief period of time, Fern allows herself to feel tired and overworked. She lets her arms feel heavier and her body slowly melds into the chair.

After almost falling asleep, Fern is brought back to reality. She blinks and reminds herself that there is still work to be done.

In an ideal world, Fern would be able to publish the website now. Unfortunately, Fern has a couple minor features that need to be added to the website before it goes live.

First, Fern needs to create a mascot.

Using a digital painting tool, Fern draws a little elephant. The cute animal is wearing black Harry Potter glasses and a graduation cap. Fern considered adding other accessories like a tutu or graduation gown, but she decided to keep the design minimal.

After the drawing is finished, Fern copies and pastes it into the “About Us” section of the website. Under the image, she gives some information about the elephant.

“Meet Buzby the baby elephant. This beautiful young lady is only 3 years old! Buzby likes to take long walks on the beach, play with kittens, and study. She can often be found playing in a puddle or reading in the shade.”

After filling in the other information in the “About Us” section, Fern needs a way for consumers to donate money. Initially, Fern thought about making ******* or Kickstarter from her original world, but those are complex enough to be their own projects. Given Fern’s age and lack of resources, it is best that she sticks to one project at a time.

Fern settles for adding an extension to the website. In order to simplify the donation process, she adds a big button on the bottom left of the website. The button is a bright coral color and it says, “Donate Here!”

After the donation button is clicked, the website will show an informational page. The page will present what happens with the donated money and what the perks of donating are.

For a one-dollar donation, members receive a fuzzy feeling. A member who donates five dollars receives a shout out on Simply Explained’s front page and the previous perk. A member who donates 10 dollars receives extra practice worksheets and the two previous perks. Finally, a member who donates 20 dollars receives a mug with a picture of Buzby playing with a kitten.

At the bottom of the information page, a user can create an account or sign in. Once logged in, the user will be prompted to add their credit card or debit card information. After this info is added, the user can select how much they want to donate.

Before Fern can let the website go live, she has to solve one last problem: the website’s users have no way of asking for help!

Fern wants people to get feedback even when she is unavailable, so she has decided to make a community questions forum. This way, community members can answer the questions of other community members. Also, everyone will have access to the same questions and answers. This helps avoid the problem of Fern having to answer the same question over and over again.

Fern uses the idea of ranking members according to how often and accurately they contribute to the forums. Members can increase their ranking by posting often or by getting likes on their posts. When they reach certain criteria, the members earn titles such as bookworm, learning wizard, and ruler of knowledge.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Fern quickly finalizes the forums and develops an algorithm that automatically ranks community members. She also uses a program from her original universe that identifies people who are spamming and prevents them from commenting.

Another feature that Fern wants to add is a comments section below every lesson and learning activity!

Just like the forums, community members will be able to respond to questions and comments.

This is relatively simple for Fern to add to the website. After about five minutes of Fern squinting at the computer screen and typing on the keyboard, she has already finished!

Just as Fern is about to declare the website ready for the public, she remembers that she needs staff!

Although the website is mostly functional by itself, some student questions will require an answer from a professional.

Fern does not have any money to pay for a professional, so she will instead hire volunteer tutors.

Fern identifies a couple requirements of the tutors: 1-2 years of teaching experience, passion for helping others, available 15 hours a week, and a high level of understanding of information taught in the lessons.

Logically, anyone who has finished a year of university should be a qualified tutor. Fern hopes that these relatively low requirements will encourage people to apply and volunteer for Simply Explained. The more people that volunteer, the less work Fern will have to do and the more time Fern will have for other projects!

Looking at the clock, Fern realizes that it is already four o’clock in the morning! Camilla and Miles will be waking up in only three hours!

Fern saves all her work from the night, turns off the computer, and makes her way back to bed.

Yet another productive and tiring night comes to an end.