Prime Target Wins Rep. Lee’s (NV-03) 2019 Congressional App Challenge
Rep. Susie Lee has named two Las Vegas students as the winner of the Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s 3rd district. Palo Verde High School’s Gavin Claire and Ethan Claire submitted Prime Target, a gaming app that allows students to brush up on their math skills.
When asked why they were passionate about creating a math app the students replied, “I regularly work with students who need help with mastering fundamental mathematics skills, especially identifying prime and composite numbers. The problem is students and teachers often rely upon brute force memorization. This is what inspired me to create a fun and interactive gaming app, as an alternative method for learning this information.” They hope to encourage other students to better their communities by using their computer science skills.
Over 10,000 students registered for the 2019 Congressional App Challenge. These students created and submitted 2,177 functioning apps, marking the end of the most successful Congressional App Challenge to date. All told, 304 Members of Congress hosted Congressional App Challenges in their districts across 48 states, Puerto Rico, the Mariana Islands, and Washington, D.C.
The CAC is an initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. The non-profit Internet Education Foundation provides the CAC with supplemental staffing and support. In the five years of the Congressional App Challenge, the program has yielded 1134 App Challenges across 48 states. Thousands of functional apps have been created by over 25,000 students, and participant demographics surpass all industry diversity metrics.