The Congressional App Challenge is a competition aimed at encouraging U.S. high school students to learn how to code by creating their own applications. The Challenge is intended to highlight the value of computer science and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and encourage students to engage in these fields. By encouraging and recognizing our nation’s young programming talent, Congress hopes to shine a light on the growing importance of these skills.  

The Congressional App Challenge will last from July 18, 2016, through 9 p.m. PT on November 2, 2016, and is open to all U.S. high school students in participating districts. Challenge participants are invited, either as individuals or as teams, to create and submit their own software application (“app”) for mobile, tablet, or other computing devices on a platform of their choice. A panel of local computer science professionals and congressional representatives will judge the apps, and the winners in each district will have the honor of being recognized by their Congressional representative. If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Marquardt at kelly [dot] marquardt [at] mail [dot] house [dot] gov.

For a complete description of contest rules, click HERE.

To Register

To enter, the student may register here at http://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/, where they will be directed to the form to submit their app and video. 

All entries must be an original in concept, design and execution.

Resources for Students and Teachers

• Code.org
• 36 Resources To Help You Teach Kids Programming
• CodeAcademy.COM self-taught courses in HTML/CSS, Python, Ruby, and PHP
• MIT App Inventor tutorial to develop mobile apps on Android phones.
• Scratch a simple visual programming language
• Alice is used to create 3D animations
• Development Kits:
  • Apple iOS Developer Program
  • Android- Develop for Android
  • Windows Apps