Congressional STEM App Competition

In 2014, for the first time, the House of Representatives hosted The House STEM App Challenge to encourage creativity and participation in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields. This event is nationwide, and allows high school students - either as individuals or teams up to four people - to display their talents by creating a software application, or “app,” for a tablet, computer or mobile device. Students who wish to participate in the competition must submit a YouTube video demonstration explaining how their app works and what they learned during the competition. All entries must be original in concept, design and execution.

While participants will only be judged on their conceptual plan for an app, students are encouraged to explore the process and fully develop their app. For students who choose to take this extra step, they can also include a video of how the app would be used. 

The competition is currently closed. Please check back for 2015 competition information this winter. 

2014 winner - Riley Roth, Apollo High School in Owensboro
Riley's winning app, the Science Research Site Finder was conceptualized to “assist students, teachers, professors and scientists doing research by making accurate and valid scientific websites easily accessible in a single source.”

Resources for students & teachers:
Code.org
36 Resources To Help You Teach Kids Programming
CodeAcademy
MIT App Inventor Tutorial
Scratch - A simple visual programming language
Alice - To create 3D animations
Development Kits (Apple, Android & Windows)