INDIANAPOLIS – The winners have been announced in the 2013 Verizon Innovative App Challenge, and two Project Lead The Way (PLTW) teams placed among the Top 10 Best in Nation Winners. The teams from Rock Canyon High School in Highlands Ranch, Colo., and Forney High School in Forney, Texas, both created award-winning mobile apps.
The team from Rock Canyon High School designed an app called “CaringHands,” which increases awareness of global problems and allows the user to donate to charities supporting solutions to these issues. PLTW students from Forney High School created an app called “One Place,” which offers students, faculty, and the community one location to find details about upcoming school and community events.
Eventually, the teams’ apps will be made available for download and use, but first the students will work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab to improve their projects. Both Rock Canyon High School and Forney High School will be awarded a $10,000 Verizon Foundation grant to further invest in STEM education. In addition to the recognition and funding for their school, each student on the teams will be given the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 by Samsung Mobile.
Just as exciting as the Project Lead The Way teams that finished among the top 10 is where the competition was held. The contest was housed in the Innovation Portal, which is a PLTW-created portal for students to create, share, and receive feedback on their designs. Home to over 10,000 current users, the Innovation Portal was developed to solve a need for a standardized vehicle to showcase their original engineering design work. Additionally, post-secondary institutions and corporate partners can utilize the Innovation Portal to connect with student work or host competitions and challenges like the Verizon Innovative App Challenge.
Verizon’s Innovation App Challenge was created by the Verizon Foundation in partnership with the Technology Student Association (TSA) to promote imagination and innovation and encourage students to pursue their interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
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About PLTW Project Lead The Way (PLTW) is the leading provider of rigorous and innovative STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education curricular programs used in schools. As a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, PLTW exists to prepare students for the global economy through its world-class curriculum, high-quality professional development, and an engaged network of educators, students, universities and professionals. PLTW's comprehensive curriculum has been collaboratively designed by PLTW teachers, university educators, engineering and biomedical professionals, and school administrators to promote critical thinking, creativity, innovation and real-world problem solving skills in students. The hands-on, project-based program engages students on multiple levels, exposes them to areas of study that they typically do not pursue, and provides them with a foundation and proven path to college and career success. More than 4,700 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are currently offering PLTW courses to their students. For more information, visit www.pltw.org.