Empowering Youth through Coding: The Journey of the SurVive App Creators
Four seventh graders from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, realized their dreams of creating a winning mobile app and earning a trip to the nation’s capital.
(Left to right) Jayden Mclean, Jayden Byfield, Tristan Hitchins, and Florentz Macguffie won first place in the 2023 Congressional App Challenge for their app “SurVive.”
If you ask a group of middle schoolers what they think technology is, the main response will be the latest video game they spend hours playing online with their friends. For Florentz Macguffie, Jayden Byfield, Jayden Mclean, and Tristan Hitchins—four seventh grade boys from Brooklyn Science and Engineering Academy in New York—their response was no different. To Tristan and Florentz, technology meant fun and games; for Jayden B., it meant “devices you can share information with,” such as iPhones. What the boys didn’t know was how much their perspective would change after their STEM teacher, Ms. Jennings, introduced them to MIT App Inventor. Not only did they develop SurVive, an original mobile app that helps people survive natural disasters, but they also went on to win first place in the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in New York’s Ninth District.
Back in the day
The four students were first introduced to programming in their sixth grade STEM class taught by Ms. Jennings. They learned block coding for Sphero robots, programmed geometric patterns, and completed engineering challenges. Further exposure came when they immersed themselves in Amazon Future Engineer’s computer science program, which included coding challenges like Minecraft Adventurer and Moana: Wayfind with Code. The curriculum also taught them about pair programming, including when to be the driver—the person who uses the computer to write the actual program—and when to be navigator—the person helping the driver by offering suggestions for improving the program. In addition to gaining technical skills, the students developed a growth mindset and learned how to work collaboratively with one other.
After completing an MIT App Inventor workshop sponsored by the New York City Department of Education, Ms. Jennings introduced her STEM classes to the block-based mobile app development platform. Working with App Inventor was a logical choice because students had used a similar block coding program with their Sphero Robots. This made the transition easier and less intimidating for students.
Jayden B. immediately thought that App Inventor would be the perfect program to develop an app for Congressional App Challenge when Ms. Jennings announced the competition in June 2023. An all-girls team from their school had won the Congressional App Challenge back in 2019 using Scratch, and the boys dreamed of continuing that legacy.
Tristan Hitchins and Jayden Byfield demonstrate Sphero robots they programmed for the district science fair.
Inspired by Mother Nature
The team started meeting with Ms. Jennings during lunchtime that June to brainstorm ideas for the app competition. They were encouraged to make observations about their community and identify a problem that could be solved using an app. During one brainstorming session, Florentz talked about urban flooding he witnessed in train stations, streets, and homes in his neighborhood. A family in Queens had lost their mother and son when their basement and front entrance went underwater. Tristan recalled that the district’s science fair had been canceled due to wildfires in Canada, which turned the Brooklyn skies orange. The air pollution caused by the fires made it dangerous for students with asthma to breathe. These natural disasters inspired the boys to start developing their app.
“It felt like a dream. I thought that I would never get this far, but I proved myself wrong.”
At first, the team wanted to focus only on disasters impacting their own lives. After continuing to brainstorm and receive feedback from their teacher, they felt inspired to research and include other disasters, including wildfires in California and Hawaii, earthquakes in Haiti and Spain, and record high temperatures around the globe in summer 2023. The problem was clear: people needed the resources to learn how to survive natural disasters.
Creating an app for that
The original name of the app was “Rescue Me” because the team wanted to help people get the information they needed to be rescued. However, they realized that a rescue might arrive too late. What people needed to learn was how to survive a disaster. They decided to rename their app “SurVive,” providing information about what to do before, during, and after earthquakes, flooding, excessive heat, wildfires, and storms.
For several months, the team worked with Ms. Jennings to transfer their design ideas from Canvas into MIT App Inventor. Using several mobile app templates from Canvas, they first brainstormed what the app pages could look like. Then each team member researched a different natural disaster and designed the corresponding pages in the app. Finally, they collaborated with their teacher to code the functionality of each page.
The SurVive mobile app provides information for surviving natural disasters including poor air quality, extreme heat, flooding, and earthquakes.
“It felt like a dream”
Could a team of seventh grader students from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, design a winning app and earn a trip to Washington, D.C.? When the boys received the email announcing that they won the Congressional App Challenge, Tristan said, “It felt like a dream. I thought that I would never get this far, but I proved myself wrong.”
Creating SurVive helped the students not only learn about app development, but also believe in their own persistence and abilities. The impact of their achievement extended to their entire school and community. “It gives older and younger students something to look up to. It is also a reminder to give coding, programming, and engineering a shot, which can have a very big positive effect on their lives,” said Florentz.
“It gives older and younger students something to look up to. It is also a reminder to give coding, programming, and engineering a shot, which can have a very big positive effect on their lives.”
The experience of meeting their Congresswoman and presenting their app in the nation’s capital left a lasting impression on the team. Jayden B. realized the importance of meeting people outside of his school community, in order to learn more about the world around him and see what can be accomplished. Florentz discovered a newfound love for computer science, robotics, and engineering after seeing that he could succeed in the field through hard work and perseverance. While the boys still enjoy playing games with their friends, they now understand the true potential of technology to solve real-world problems.
For the SurVive team, what was once a distant dream—standing on the steps of Capitol Hill, a historic place they had always seen on television—became their new reality. They were able to represent East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and the BSEA community by presenting their app to hundreds of students and policymakers from across the country. They now know the importance of having dreams, especially when you can work to make them come true.
The STEM program and after-school app program were made possible through support and equipment provided by BSEA Principal Angela DeFilippis. BSEA's vision is to provide extraordinary STEM experiences and career exposure to its students. Principal DeFilippis supported both student and teacher dreams to reach Capitol Hill.