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

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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.

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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.

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