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Congressional App Challenge is Opportunity for Middle and High School Students

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Congressional App Challenge
Congressional App Challenge

Congressman Mike Kelly just sent out a notice about the Congressional App Challenge now starting for 2025 and it’s a fantastic opportunity for middle and high school students to jump into programming. Students are challenged to create an application of their own choosing on whatever interests them.

PLATFORM: The app can be developed for any platform, including but not limited to web apps, desktop/PC apps, mobile apps, web browser extensions, robots, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), wearable devices, smart devices, and embedded systems.
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE: Participants may use any programming language, including but not limited to C, C++, Objective C, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, Swift, and block-based coding languages.

There’s time enough for everyone

There’s plenty of time to take part, even if you don’t know how to write any code in any programming language. The deadline for submissions is October 30th and now that school is out for the summer, you can start from scratch, learning enough of one of the languages to come up with a functional application. The best way to learn anything is to do the real thing. Don’t learn about programming, do actual programming.

Any computer will do

You don’t need the newest and most powerful computer, almost any computer will do. Basic code editors are available for all of the platforms, for Windows, Apple and Linux.

This is opportunity knocking- students should open the door

Whether you win or lose, you’ll learn a lot and you might surprise yourself with what you can do. If you’re not sure, just jump in and get started. It costs nothing!

I’ve written before about Linux and using old computers or making one from a Raspberry Pi single board computer. If someone has an old computer they’re not using, that will work just fine. If you have a computer now, you’re all set.

Don't just use computers - create something!
Don’t just use computers – create something!

Congressional App Challenge
Congressional App Challenge Rules
Winners from 2024 – see previous apps, they’re not extremely complex, you can do this

Filed Under: Technology Education Tagged With: , ,

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