Academics
ResearchQuest
Guided research adventure where students formulate questions, evaluate sources, synthesize findings, and produce reports -- building essential information literacy skills through structured research quests.
Meet your mentor
Every Spark & Anvil app has a friendly mentor character that demonstrates, praises, and patiently scaffolds learning. On-device AI personalizes the mentor's responses to your kid's progress — never connecting to a server, never collecting data.
Mentored by Scholar
#4A6FA5 ResearchQuest is a guided research adventure where you learn how to find, evaluate, and use information like a real researcher. You will formulate research questions, evaluate sources using the CRAAP test, take organized notes, build bibliographies, and produce research reports. These are essential skills for school, college, and life. Your AI mentor guides you through the research process -- but never writes the report for you.
Distributed-narrative cast
Meet the cast
ResearchQuest's 5-character cast embodies the foundational research-method primitives — question-formulation (Wonder), source-evaluation (Vet, CRAAP test), note-taking (Quote, quoting + paraphrasing + summarizing), synthesis (Synth, across multiple sources), and citation (Tether, attribution + bibliography). Scholar (mentor; renamed) frames each primitive; cast embodies them at school-research-club / public-library-volunteer scale. 'I'm not a real scientist' anxiety gate enforced: cast normalizes that kids ARE researchers when they investigate; foregrounds curiosity over credential; cross-app-bias-safe register from SleuthLab.
Wonder
Question-formulation — narrowing vague interest into focused, answerable research questions
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Vet
Source-evaluation — CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose)
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Quote
Note-taking — quoting + paraphrasing + summarizing; keeping voices separate
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Synth
Synthesis — combining evidence across multiple sources; finding agreement, disagreement, gaps
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Tether
Citation — attribution + bibliography; gratitude + map back to sources
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Survey
Background reading — read around a topic to learn the lay of the land before narrowing (W.7)
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Trawl
Search strategy — cast a wide net of keywords, then pull it tight; refine when it comes back wrong (W.8)
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Crosscut
Lateral reading / corroboration — don't trust one page; cross-check a claim across independent sources
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Verdict
Forming a thesis — gather the evidence, then take a stand; 'here's what I think, and here's why' (W.1)
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Wellspring
Primary vs secondary sources — trace a claim upstream to its original, firsthand source
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Browse all 10 chapters → · What's distributed-narrative methodology? →
What's inside
Asking Good Questions
Every great research project starts with a question. ResearchQuest guides you from broad topics ("space") to focused, answerable research questions ("How do ast
Source Evaluation (CRAAP Test)
Not all sources are equally trustworthy. Rate every source using the CRAAP test: Currency (how recent?), Relevance (does it answer your question?), Authority (w
Note-Taking
Take structured notes from your evaluated sources. The app teaches you the difference between quoting (exact words), paraphrasing (your own words), and summariz
Bibliography Building
As you add sources, ResearchQuest automatically builds your bibliography in MLA or APA format. You learn what information each citation needs and why proper att
Mentored by Scholar — on-device AI, no data leaves the device.
How ResearchQuest handles your kid's data
- ✅ All progress, settings, and AI-generated content stays on the device
- ✅ No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs
- ✅ No ads, no in-app purchases — you pay once
- ✅ COPPA compliant under the 2026 FTC amendments
- ✅ Parental controls + session limits + content filters built in
ResearchQuest runs on ForgeKit — the open-source Swift Package Manager framework that powers every Spark & Anvil app. ForgeKit ensures consistent accessibility, COPPA compliance, and design language across the portfolio, so your kid's progress and preferences feel coherent across every app they touch.
Coming to the App Store
ResearchQuest is in active development. Email us to hear when it ships — no marketing, no spam, just a one-shot launch announcement.
Email me at launch