From Apps To Apples—

NHS Students Create A Mobile Application

By Eliza Hallabeck

After two semesters worth of work, students in Newtown High School’s information technology research and development (ITRD) class, formerly called Connecticut Technology Innovation Academy, earned awards Saturday, May 21, during a statewide competition.

“Saturday was the Connecticut Student Innovation Expo in Hartford at the Connecticut Convention Center, and our class competed against the other classes from around the state,” said NHS teacher Kristin Violette.

At the expo, the student group placed first in “Outstanding Web Design,” “Outstanding Expo Booth,” “Outstanding Presentation,” and “Overall Mobile Application Development.” In addition, the team tied for first in the “Design Document/White Paper” category. The students earned the awards and honors for designing and developing a mobile application called “VeggieFetch.”

Freshman James Wilkie said participating in the Expo was amazing.

“VeggieFetch is an app that allows people to find farmers’ markets within their area or Connecticut in general,” James explained.

Fellow freshman Tristan Villamil said he thinks VeggieFetch is a “really good app,” and the group learned a lot from feedback they received during the Expo. Tristan said he worked on creating the website, www.veggiefetch.com, which earned the team first place in the “Outstanding Web Design” category.

According to the website, “VeggieFetch is a mobile application meant to support the consumption of locally grown and organic food, the improvement of communal health, and the preservation of farming and open space in Connecticut.”

When VeggieFetch becomes available for free download later this school year, it will provide its users with lists of farmers’ markets by county, details on the markets, lists of participating vendors, directions to the market, and it will identify organic farms.

Ms Violette said this week that the program has been offered at the high school for ten years.

All of the students who participated in this year’s ITRD course said they enjoyed the program. Freshman Anna Whitlock said the students became a tight-knit group by the end of the year, “and we ended up producing a really cool product.”

In the first half of the course, students created their own mobile applications, and for the second half of the year, the class chose one of those to focus on and make available to the public. VeggieFetch was originally the James Wilkie’s concept. Other mobile applications students thought up included apps to help people donate to their favorite charities, and an app to inform people about community service projects in their area.

According to Ms Violette, the Connecticut Innovation Academy course, which was originally founded by the Center for 21st Century Skills with Education Connection, requires students to develop a solution to an issue or problem facing society. This year the program’s theme was “Moving Forward, Giving Back.”

Along with developing and completing projects, student teams create a mock company and assume roles, according to Ms Violette. Surveys, print materials, commercials, and websites are created as a marketing plan for the product. Students present ideas throughout the year to industry professionals at IBM to hone their solutions. Twenty-First Century skills such as creative thinking, problem solving, communication, and collaboration are the foundation for success in this program, said Ms Violette.

Students who participated in the Connecticut Student Innovation Expo were Austin Babyak, Kevin Gorman, Jordan Salvesen, Owen Sandercox, Sean Sonntag, Vivek Tedla, Tristan Villamil, Anna Whitlock, and James Wilkie.

Freshman Kevin Gorman said he would recommend other students take the course.

“It gives you good experience with working as a team,” said Kevin about the course, “as sort of a mock-company to make your product and market it to other people.”

As “marketing director” for VeggieFetch, Kevin said he had to think about how to get the word out to public that the product was available. He created a commercial for VeggieFetch that is available on the product’s website.

Sophomore Sean Sonntag said creating VeggieFetch was fun.

“And it is good to have a course like CTIA, because it is sort of an umbrella course,” said Sean. “You get to try out every aspect of business without pigeon-holing yourself to one thing.”

Students, Sean said, got to try everything involved in the program from learning marketing to developing the program. He also said attending the Expo was a great way to show off what the students learned throughout the 2010-11 academic year.

Some of the featured people in attendance at the Expo included Governor Daniel Malloy, Foursquare Co-founder Naveen Selvadurai, and Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman.

Sean said he also recommends students take the course.

“It’s a good chance for learning 21st Century skills,” Sean said.