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Aerospace and Eningeering Students Develop App Called Zotis
(Hartford, CT) Three students represented CREC’s Academy of Aerospace and Engineering on March 1 at the 2015 Congressional App Challenge in Washington, D.C.
The Congressional App Challenge is a competition that encourages high school students throughout the United States to learn how to code by creating their own applications for smartphones, tablets, and computers. It highlights the value of computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education with the hope of attracting students to these fields.
While they did not place in the competition, 17-year-old Sara Banach of Enfield, 16-year-old Gary Collier of Hartford, and 16-year-old Donovan Vilchek of Bristol were able to show members of Congress “Zotis”, a study application they created to help organize STEM resources and websites.
“We wanted to create something that helps students and everyone else in our school,” said Banach, who wants to study software engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The three students are enrolled in a CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering class called “College Board computer science principles”, a pilot for a new Advanced Placement course that will launch next school year.
“This course has transformed and continues to transform students’ lives,” said Chinma Uche, who teaches the class. “It should be offered to all students, even students who have traditionally not taken AP courses, because it allows students to express their creativity and understand their rapidly changing world.”
Although the Congressional App Challenge is over, Uche’s students will continue to work on Zotis. They hope to solicit a company to further develop the app, and they want to further develop it so that other schools can customize the app.
