In the AppJam+ Program, my co-mentors and I had the opportunity to teach coding and mobile app development to 26 students at Tuffree Middle School in Placentia, California. Although looking over these middle school students was overwhelming, their enthusiasm and energy made the classroom a fun, learning environment!

For 4 hours a week over the span of 10 weeks, my co-mentors and I spent the first 3 weeks teaching 26 students programming fundamentals with the help of the Thunkable platform. Then, the classroom split into teams of 4 students, and for the following 6 weeks, each team created their own Android game relating to a topic in STEM. Led by an AppJam+ mentor, each team only had 14 hours collectively to create their application. By the end of the program, each team showcases their application to the other 30 Appjam+ teams and the students’ parents.

I led the team of easily-distracted, Fortnite-loving boys (see picture above), and it was a fun and humbling experience! I led the team as a project manager, delegating tasks to the boys relating to designing the levels and mechanics of the game, implementing the logic, drawing the graphics, and engineering the music and sound effects. By the end of the program, my team created STEMNITE, in which the main character battles villains by shooting Fortnite-inspired weapons while answering STEM-related questions.