On Monday, December 3, Plymouth High School received a visit from U.S. Representative Jackie Walorski. The Congresswoman made a special visit to the computer science classroom where Senior Kobe Johnson, a computer science III student, was wrapping up his third-hour cyber-security class with teacher Lindsay Moore.
Walorski surprised 17-year-old Johnson, with a first-place certificate for his 2018 Congressional App Challenge (CAC) entry. He submitted his entry back in October. Johnson found out about the challenge from his teacher Ms. Moore. “This was the first year I was aware of the contest. As soon as I received the information, I forwarded it to my computer science students who have the experience to be competitive. Kobe immediately took up the challenge and was prepared to program a quality submission in the limited time that remained in the submission window,” said Moore.
The submission deadline for students to register and submit their app online was October 15. Moore said Kobe has been anxiously awaiting information regarding his submission for the Congressional App Challenge. Monday’s visit by Walorski was kept a surprise from Johnson and the rest of his PHS peers.
Johnson was pleasantly shocked to discover Walorski’s visit was centered around his CAC submission that took first place. His submission was a student companion app. He designed the app using xCode for an Apple OS to help students organize their workload and assignments.
In addition to winning the top award for Indiana’s District 2, it is the first time any student in District 2 has earned this honor. Walorski said Johnson’s app will be put on display in the U.S. Capitol Building for one year.
Moore said, “I am really proud of Kobe and his abilities. We worked very closely with the Plymouth Community School Corporation IT department to ensure he had access to the development tools he was most comfortable using. I believe Kobe only had a week to program his submission before the deadline once we were able to get his computer setup.”
Although Moore said the Congressional App Challenge is not connected with her classroom curriculum, she said prestigious computer science contests like this one create opportunities for her students to build their resumes. “Creating apps help prepare them for life after high school with future studies and or a possible career in computer science. App design challenges have been one of the most accessible ways for my students to document and broadcast their programming proficiency,” said Moore.
Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide computer science competition that allows middle and high school students to submit computer programs or smartphone apps written in any programming language. The first official Congressional App Challenge launched in 2015, in the first three years of the challenge, the CAC has reached nearly 9,000 students across 42 states.
