Students win Congressional App Challenge
The Knights Coders created an app to help consumers eliminate food waste
The room that serves as home base for student coders at Immaculate Conception Academy in Union Township bristles with energy and creativity.
Desks are messy. The white board is filled with ideas and plans. Projects are strewn about.
That’s where a team of sixth, seventh and eighth graders, called The Knights Coders, conceived of the app that recently won the Congressional App Challenge for Pennsylvania’s 9th District.
Even in the precise and particular world of coding, there is still the messy work of creativity and experimentation, the students learned.
And late nights. “That’s when inspiration comes for a lot of coders,” volunteer coach and STEM teacher Greg Forkin said. Forkin, CEO of Fintech LLC, is the husband of Principal Lisa Forkin.
The students, who could not be named because some parents work for government agencies, said sometimes they would be thinking through problems at night and would text or message Forkin.
It’s further evidence of the students’ inspiration and drive as they dug into creating the app they have named “My Pantry.” The concept is to help consumers eliminate food waste. Users will be able to record their food purchases and the app will remind them when the items will go bad. It will also suggest recipes based on available ingredients.
In their YouTube video, the students said the concept will help farmers in
making farm-to-table connections with consumers.
The Immaculate Conception Academy students will head to Washington, D.C., in March to be honored at the #HouseofCode event with winners from 304 other congressional districts.
Thirteen of Pennsylvania’s 18 representatives host the challenge. Rep. Dan Meuser sponsored the challenge for students in his dis- trict, which includes Berks County.
More than 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date, officials said. In addition, 304 members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.