Governor Ivey Announces New Details on Governor’s App Challenge

MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey on Monday announced new details about the Governor’s App Challenge, which she launched in March at the inaugural Alabama Computer Science Summit.
The Governor’s App Challenge is a statewide, computer programming competition for Alabama students, in grades K–12, with the goal of giving more students the opportunity to gain recognition for their mastery and application of computer programming and design.
“Since establishing my Advisory Council for Computer Science Education last year, we have been hard at work to make my vision of giving every Alabama student a 21^st Century education into a reality. I’m encouraging students to become a part of this emerging technology economy and participate in the Governor’s App Challenge,” Governor Ivey said. “This contest allows students from every corner of the state to get creative and build their own app while putting into practice computer science principles they are learning in the classroom.”
Students will create an application in a language of their choosing, respond in writing to specific prompts about the application and submit a video of their application running. Student submissions will be judged in one of three grade bands: Elementary (K-5), Middle School (6-8) and High School (9-12).
Apps will be judged at various levels, with only the winning entry in each grade band advancing to the next level. The first level of competition will be at the individual school. The winner(s) from each school will advance to the Local Education Agency (LEA) level. The winner(s) from the LEA level will advance to the State Board of Education district level and the winners from each of the State School Board districts will enter the state championship. The State School Board district winners will compete at the Alabama Computer Science Summit in April 2019, with winners announced at the conclusion of the summit.
Participants must register by December 21, 2018 (extended from November 1). More information about the Governor’s App Challenge can be found at: http://bit.ly/ALGovACInfo and here.
In 2016, only 86 schools in Alabama offered a high-quality computer science course; today, more than 175 Alabama high schools offer such classes. Governor Ivey is optimistic about this progress but plans to continue working toward her goal of ensuring a computer science course is offered at every Alabama middle and high school by 2022, through her Strong Start, Strong Finish education initiative.
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