I’m pleased to announce the 2020 Congressional App Challenge for TX-26. The Congressional App Challenge (CAC) was designed to encourage student participation in STEM, especially in computer science and coding. This nationwide effort allows students to compete alongside their peers by creating an app for desktop/PC, web, tablet, mobile, raspberry Pi, or other devices. The Challenge is specifically designed to promote innovation and engagement in computer science and is open to all middle and high school students residing or attending school in the 26th Congressional District of Texas.
Participating students are challenged to create an app that will impress our panel of expert judges, who are tasked with choosing a middle school, high school, and grand prize winner. The grand prize winner will have the opportunity to display their app in the U.S. Capitol and be featured on the U.S. House of Representatives website as well as the Congressional App Challenge website! The Congressional App Challenge is the most prestigious national prize for students in computer science. View the student information flyer here: https://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/CAC-2020-flyer-1.pdf?mc_cid=57bb1df90e&mc_eid=214fc87dc4.
Registration for the 2020 Congressional App Challenge officially opens on June 1, 2020. This is a great opportunity for interested students to learn how to “Code at Home,” sharpen their skills and prepare for the Congressional App Challenge with free resources (i.e. Amazon Web Services, Apple Swift Playground, Capital One Coders, Microsoft MakeCode, Girls Who Code, Thunkable, the CoderSchool, and Boolean Girl).
Students entering the competition must submit their app to the Congressional App Challenge website (https://www.congressionalappchallenge.us/students/) by the competition deadline on October 19, 2020.
Submission Rules and Requirements:
1. To be eligible, students must:
- Be currently enrolled in middle or high school (6th – 12th grade). Note: Students may not participate after having graduated high school.
- Reside &/or attend school in the 26th Congressional District of Texas (open to private, public, and home-schooled students)
- If entering as a group, there may be no more than 4 members (at least 2 members per group must live &/or attend school in Texas’ 26th Congressional District)
- Submit your app by the October 19, 2020 deadline and follow other stated requirements. (Students are encouraged to register online by September 10th prior to submitting their app by October 19th.) The competition is open to all students who meet the eligibility requirements, regardless of coding experience.
2. Each student’s app may cover any topic of their choice, but must be appropriate, original, and created within one year of the submission deadline (e.g. an time after November 1, 2019).
3. Each student’s app may be written in any programming language (C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or "block code"), for any platform (desktop/PC, web, mobile, raspberry Pi, etc.).
4. Students (individual and/or group) may only submit one app.
5. Students must complete the Sign-up Form and will be asked to answer a series of questions including: ▪ Title of the app. ▪ The coding language used. ▪ What they were trying to accomplish and why. ▪ An explanation of a difficulty they faced in programming the app and how it was overcome. ▪ What improvements the students would make if they were going to create a version 2.0 of their app.
6. Students must create a 1 - 3 minute video, post it on YouTube or Vimeo and submit the link on the CAC submission form. The video must be set up to public view. Videos that are longer than 3 minutes will be penalized per the judges’ discretion.
7. An Exit Questionnaire will be emailed to all students following the submission of their app.
All interested students in the 26th District are encouraged to participate in the Congressional App Challenge, regardless of previous experience. I look forward to viewing your submissions! If you have any questions, please contact Robin Vaughan, Deputy District Coordinator, in my Lake Dallas office by email: robin.vaughan@mail.house.gov or phone: 940-497-5031.
