Henry Van Ness
Selected work

Classroom software · Sample-data demo

SimDeck

I built SimDeck from a sixth-grade teacher’s paper-card history activity. The public demo uses sample data to show student and teacher screens, card actions, and how a teacher can restore changes.

Try the demo See the teacher and student screens
My role
Product · full-stack web
Platform
Responsive web app
Started
April 2026
Status
Public sample-data demo

Sample-data demo

These are sample screens from the public demo. No real class data is shown.

01Teacher view

SimDeck teacher demo showing a student roster, Maya’s cards, and a recent-moves log.
Teacher view: select a student, inspect the cards, and review recent actions.

02Student view

SimDeck student demo showing Maya’s active and used history simulation cards.
Student view: the cards this sample student can use or has already spent.

Where I started

The lesson already had the rules.

Students used cards to represent resources, powers, and responsibilities. I kept that part of the activity and added screens for the student’s hand and the teacher’s class view.

The public demo uses sample names and cards. It lets visitors switch between the two views and try card actions without showing a real class roster.

What I built

From paper cards to student and teacher screens.

In the paper activity, students spent, traded, blocked, and restored cards. It was hard to keep track of who held each card.

Two roles

Students and teachers see different screens.

Students can use cards from their hand or send them to someone else. The teacher can see all hands and assign a set of role cards.

Card history

The teacher can undo a card change.

The app records card use, transfers, restores, and undo actions. The teacher can correct a mistake and continue the lesson.

Card sets

The teacher can reuse a set of cards.

Teachers can save card sets for the Egypt and China simulations or use the general classroom sets.

Choices I made

Give students and teachers different controls.

  • Show students only their hand.

    Students can see which cards they hold, use them, or send them to someone else.

  • Keep restore controls with the teacher.

    Restore and undo controls let a teacher fix card state during a lesson.

  • Use sample names in the public demo.

    Visitors can switch between teacher and student views using sample data.