After developing their own augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app, students representing Apollo and Daviess County high schools recently earned third place in the region in the annual Congressional App Challenge – repeating an achievement earned by AHS students for the past two years.
Under the direction of Apollo High School engineering and computer science teacher Jonathan Leohr, the team of students included AHS seniors Matisse Dalton, Braxton Powers and Kyla Thomson, along with DCHS senior Allison Burgan. They will be recognized by Rep. Brett Guthrie for the achievement early next year.
The U.S. House of Representatives hosts a district-wide Congressional App Challenge for middle and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. Every year, they challenge students to create and submit their original apps for an opportunity to win the Congressional App Challenge (CAC).
Leohr said Apollo first participated in the CAC in 2019, quickly discovering that the district is “by far” the most competitive in Kentucky.
“In most districts, fewer than 10 projects are submitted, but in our district, this year there were over 60 submissions,” Leohr said. “I am honored to teach Project Based Programming at Apollo, a course that is intended to be the capstone senior year course of our prestigious Code Pathway. We are one of very few public education high schools that offer four full years of programming classes and this course is the crowning achievement of that pathway.”
In this course, students are put into groups and tasked with brainstorming several potential projects, ultimately choosing the one with the most promise.
“The students are put fully in the driver’s seat and entrusted with learning new languages on their own with only minor direction and help from me as the teacher,” Leohr said. “This year I had two teams submit projects using industry languages such as Kotlin and Unity/C#.”
Leohr said this year’s team of students tossed around several ideas but decided the best and most impactful one included developing an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app. One student’s mother is a speech therapist who has shared concerns that most AAC apps have very robotic voices or are entirely too expensive to consider purchasing.
Recognizing the need for a more affordable solution with better audio and features, the team set out to achieve that by first creating a prototype in a familiar language while learning Kotlin and Android Studio. Throughout the year, they have worked through numerous difficulties but have sought guidance from multiple sources, including industry experts such as Wes Eklund, who currently works for Amazon Web Services.
Leohr said he is especially proud that his students have demonstrated success in what is now three consecutive years of participating in the CAC.
“This experience is one these students will never forget. It will boost their career resumes and applications for years to come,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder of this team or their accomplishments and I look forward to continuing this path of excellence.”
