JACKSON — Eighth-graders Shakaren Douglas and Treasure King recently placed first among South Carolina middle-schoolers in a new statewide contest, but the big winner will be the environment when they get their Earth Support Mobile App up and running.
The students at Jackson STEM Middle School created the app, which records when and how much people recycle, for the first Innovative Challenge sponsored by the S.C. Department of Education. Their challenge was to create projects using technology to solve or bring awareness to a problem in the community.
With the app, which works for Android smartphones and tablets, people can scan a barcode on a bin to record every time they recycle paper, plastic or aluminum. When the bins are full, Douglas and King can weigh them and record the number in a data chart to keep track of how much material is being recycled.
In keeping with Jackson's focus on science, technology, engineering and math, Douglas and King used the engineering design process to create the app working closely with Alvina Head, their mobile apps development teacher, after school and on Saturdays.
“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.”
“Jackson Middle is preparing us for the real world,” King said.
Douglas said she is focused on a career in business and management, and King said she wants to become a mobile apps teacher like Head. Both are committed to helping the environment.
“We're going to keep on improving this app and making it better,” Douglas said.
“I want to continue making apps for the environment and making the world a better place,” King said.
Perry Smith, who became Jackson's principal at the beginning of this school year, said he is proud of Douglas and King and the initiative they took to highlight a problem and find an innovative solution to remedy it.
“We have some great students who have beautiful minds, and this is an opportunity to show their innovative minds and how they think critically at Jackson Middle School,” he said. “This is the type of student we're trying to produce for today's society – a student who's a thinker, a student who's a collaborator, a student who's able to think innovatively and outside the box. That's the kind of student we need in the 21st century.”
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