By Christine Bryant
Staff Writer
A group of students from the eSTEM Academy at Reynoldsburg High School has won an award for an app that is focused on improving health and wellness.
Earlier this month, the CBusStudentHack Coding for Community: Health and Wellness competition wrapped up, concluding a 12-week computer programming contest that included schools from across central Ohio.
Throughout the contest, students learned how to navigate and create apps using Microsoft Touch Develop, and the winning apps were focused on improving health and wellness and judged on software quality, the potential impact on the central Ohio region, execution and creativity.
Judges awarded the Reynoldsburg students with “Best Project Idea” for their “Food for Thought” app idea.
Anne Trachsel, a teacher at the Academy, said by participating in this project, students have experienced the design process using an authentic, real-world application, which exercises their technical capabilities as well as their collaboration skills.
“That is a valuable part of their education, and is something that we emphasize,” she said. “They will be able to apply their experience in any future career.”
As part of the competition, students submitted their programs and blogs, as well as gave 10-minute presentations to a panel of judges at Franklin University. AT&T also sponsored the event.
Matthew Royster, an eSTEM senior, said participating in the program has helped his team of students by providing insight into the app development world and teaching team building skills for the future.
“We are learning how to use new software and work through issues we find,” he said during the competition. “It is also teaching us about time management as we near the deadline for the apps.”
Christopher Washington, provost and senior vice president at Franklin University, said in a news release one of the major workforce development questions today is how to fix the tech talent shortage.
“I think universities and companies need to partner to introduce non-traditional methods to stimulate interest and talent in tech fields,” he said. “CBusStudentHack is one way that AT&T and Franklin are working together to promote computer science education, prepare high school students for college and careers, and enable them to express their creativity.”
