Middle School Students Created a New Recycling App

In South Carolina, Jackson STEM Middle School students created a new recycling app. In a statewide contest, eighth graders Treasure King and Shakaren Douglas placed first among middle school students, and when they have their Earth Support Mobile App running the big winner will be the environment

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The app records how much people recycle, and when they recycle. The First Innovative Challenge competition sponsored by the S.C. Department of Education challenged students to create projects that solve or bring awareness to a community problem using technology.

The app works for Android tablets and smartphones. People scan a barcode on a bin each time they recycle paper, plastic or aluminum to record each time they do it. When the bins are full, the students can weigh them and record the number in a chart keeping track of how much is recycled.

King and Douglas created the app working closely with their mobile apps development teacher, Alvina Head, on Saturdays and after school.

“You research. Then, you design, build, test and improve,” King said.

“As soon as you jump to Jackson Middle School in the sixth grade, you go straight into the engineering design process,” Douglas said. “As the years go on, you learn more and more about it.”

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