October 21, 2014

Kids Coding With Compassion

Source: from “Middle Schoolers Develop App to Help Visually Impaired,” by Mónica I. Feliú-Mójer’s on Voices Credit: Image courtesy of Maggie Bolado From the Department of Inspiring Teenagers, meet the all-female team of six that invented an app to help visually impaired students navigate their schools.

By Kalliopi Monoyios

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Source: from “Middle Schoolers Develop App to Help Visually Impaired,” by M?nica I. Feli?-M?jer’s on Voices Credit: Image courtesy of Maggie Bolado

From the Department of Inspiring Teenagers, meet the all-female team of six that invented an app to help visually impaired students navigate their schools. They are students at Resaca Middle School, a small, predominantly Hispanic town in Los Fresnos, Texas, who were inspired to create the app after watching a fellow student, Andres Salas, struggle to find his way around due to his visual impairment. The girls’ project, led by Resaca Middle School science teacher Maggie Bolado, was one of eight winners from a pool of 770 entries in a nationwide contest sponsored by the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Read more about these inspiring teens in M?nica I. Feli?-M?jer’s post on Voices titled, “Middle Schoolers Develop App to Help Visually Impaired.”

The Hello Navi app is available for Android now, with plans to develop it for other platforms in the works.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Before the Challenge, I never thought about STEM. I thought it would be too difficult. Afterwards, I realized you can create a lot of things. I thought that you could just use technology to look stuff up. Now I know I can make [with technology]. – Janessa Leija, Resaca Middle School student and member of the winning Hello Navi app team.

Win!

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American