Secret Ada

*** As featured on Good Morning America! ***

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Science and technology are NOT cool, especially for GIRLS. That message gets signaled to children every day by friends, schoolmates, and even teachers. Secret Ada aims to counteract that idea. As you solve each puzzle, you build up a growing collection of profiles of inspiring women in science and technology.

As well as being a great collection of role models, Secret Ada also happens to be the best cryptogram app yet in the App Store, with a stunning visual look reminiscent of a WWII-style code machine, and features like word and letter statistics, word pattern suggestions, and auto-check!

Each Secret Ada cryptogram is a profile of the work of an inspiring women in science or technology. As you crack each cryptogram puzzle, you learn more and your Solution Collection grows. Once decoded, the profiles can be read without further work at any time, or, if desired, you can re-solve the cryptogram too; it's up to you. When you're done with all the puzzles, you end up with an ebook full of great role models, and the puzzles still work (you can redo them). The aim of Secret Ada is to present these positive role models in a fun way that might be more engaging, over a longer time, than a more traditional presentation.

Secret Ada is named in honor of Ada Lovelace, who in the 1800s envisioned and described the way computer programming would work, even before computers existed.

With Secret Ada you can:

- Learn how to solve a cryptogram puzzle

- Work offline (no network access required, except for Facebook Connect feature or optional web page / email access)

- Quit and re-start any time you want; your progress is saved as long as you are not in the tutorial

- Optionally check progress as you go - or, if you don't want to have your work checked, work quickly to beat the auto-check that kicks in after you are idle for some time

- Get random tips at any time. Tips are not cheating; they don't give away letters, only advice and ideas.

And while you have fun decoding puzzles, you also will be:

- Learning about interesting problems in science and technology

- Learning about inspiring women working on those interesting problems, including pioneers who are leading advanced fields.

- Discovering role models who love what they do.

Secret Ada was programmed by a geek dad who hopes to introduce his children to the joys and benefits of science and technology. Children get many cues about their potential roles in society - from peers, teachers, parents, and media. Sometimes we could do a better job of helping girls - and boys, too, for that matter - to understand not only how much women contribute, but also how much fun it can be to be involved in science or technology as a career.

We will add more profiles to Secret Ada in future updates. There is a link in the app for you to nominate additional inspiring women. We have a long list of ideas, but your nominations will help us prioritize our list and fill in gaps. We want to profile people at any stage of their career, not just luminaries like Nobel Prize winners.

To unlock the main content, complete the tutorial first. Then you will be on your way to learning about some very inspiring women in science and technology, and, if you haven't done them before, discovering the fun of cryptogram puzzles.

What's coming up next (missing from this version):

- Sound
- Minor UI tweaks for ease-of-use
- More profiles (there are 42 profiles in version 1.0)

We would love to hear your feedback and suggestions! After buying and trying the app, please let us know what you think!