Harrison High Schoolers In Running To Win Verizon National App Challenge: VIDEO

From the Verizon Foundation

Student teams from Harrison High School have earned the title of Best in State in the third Verizon Innovative App Challenge, a national competition in which students design a mobile application concept that addresses a need or problem in their local schools or communities. The student team at Harrison High School came up with an app concept called Green Step, a carbon footprint calculator that educates the user and promotes change to their daily habits.

In total, 90 teams of creative middle and high school students from across the country have advanced to the next phase of the judging process.

The Verizon Innovative App Challenge was created by in partnership with the Technology Student Association in response to a critical need to inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering and math. Student interest and proficiency in STEM has been stagnant in the United States, especially among women and minorities, although 80 percent of all jobs over the next decade will require STEM skills. Currently, 3 million STEM jobs are unfilled in the U.S., and occupations related to STEM are projected to increase to more than 9 million by 2022.

More than 90 percent of the winners from last year’s Innovative App Challenge expressed interest in pursuing STEM careers after learning coding and launching their winning app in the Google Play store. Roughly 70 percent reported increased creativity, teamwork and communication skills, and content knowledge.

“This contest has exposed students to new skillsets such as learning to collaborate, negotiate and best of all problem solving,” said Douglas W. Schoenberger, vice president of corporate responsibility for Verizon New Jersey. “We can’t wait to see which of these creative concepts will become actual working mobile apps that can help make a difference in local communities.”

One of the 2013-14 App Challenge winners, an all-girls team from Resaca Middle School in Los Fresnos, Texas, was invited to the annual White House Science Fair to demonstrate its “Hello Navi” app, which was built to help a blind classmate better navigate the halls at school.

The Path to Best in Nation

The Best in State team from Harrison, New York will now advance to the next round of the competition. On Jan. 16, Verizon and the TSA will name 24 Best in Region middle and high school team winners from the West, Midwest, South and Northeast. Each Best in Region team will earn a $5,000 cash grant for its school to further develop or support a program in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM subjects.

On Feb. 3, the Innovative App Challenge competition’s final phase will conclude with the selection of eight Best in Nation winners – four middle school and four high school teams – chosen from the Best in Region teams. Best in Nation teams will earn their schools an additional $15,000 cash grant to further develop or support a STEM-related program. Each team member will receive a Samsung tablet, courtesy of Samsung Telecommunications America. In addition, MIT App Inventor Master Trainers from the Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab will give the Best in Nation teams onsite and virtual training on coding and app development, using MIT App Inventor to develop the teams’ apps.

Verizon, in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, will help the students develop their app concepts, making them ready for sharing and distribution. Apps developed during the first two years of the Verizon Innovative App Challenge have been downloaded more than 26,000 times from the Google Play store.

In June, the members of the eight winning teams will be invited to present their apps in person at the National TSA Conference in Dallas, Texas, courtesy of Verizon.

To see the list of the Best in State winners, visit http://verizon.com/appchallenge2014.