Four Windsor 7th graders have accepted the Broome-Tioga BOCES App Challenge.
The competition gives middle school teams two weeks to develop a mobile app for the public. Krishna Patel, Eisley Leonard, Grace Reed, and Payton Otis used that time to develop Windsor Wires, an app that would pair Windsor teenagers with opportunities for community service, such as providing lawn care, animal care, and community cleanup.
“We wanted to give kids a break from on-line learning and get them outside,” said Reed.
But, before creating the app, the students needed to learn how to code. Teacher Nikole Cappello brought in some help, Broome-Tioga BOCES PC/LAN Technician Michael Walton.
“They’ve done incredibly well. They picked it up within seconds. Once I showed them one piece of code, they ran with it,” said Walton.
“He took them from, ‘Oh, this is so hard, we’ll never be able to do it,’ to, ‘We can get this done,’” said Cappello.
The students agree.
“Coding is actually pretty easy. We put it down on paper, then we put it on the screen,” said Otis.
“When you tell computers to be smart, they’ll be smart,” said Leonard.
Leonard said that coding wasn’t the only skill the team needed to build the app.
“Communication. It would have been hard to get this app done if we didn’t talk to each other and critique our ideas,” said Leonard.
The team is also creating a video ad for their app that will be part of their presentation on Tuesday morning. Contest organizers say the goal is to not necessarily complete the app, but understand the process and have fun. The app, website and presentation will be evaluated by a panel of local judges who work with the academic, software and entrepreneurial fields.
“If I had the chance to do this again, I would. It was fun,” said Reed.