Press Releases
Finstad Announces 2024 Congressional App Challenge Winner
December 10, 2024
ROCHESTER, MN – Today, Congressman Brad Finstad (MN-01) announced teammates Grace Kaspar and Sia Sood, eighth-grade students at John Adams Middle School, are the winners of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge for Minnesota’s First District.
The teammates created the app “Design Your Brain” which uses engaging and interactive tools to improve attention, memory, and cognitive skills. Grace and Sia were inspired to create their app to address a lack of neuroeducation in schools with the goal of educating middle-schoolers about their brain and improving brain health. Watch the app demo here.
“‘Design Your Brain’ is an excellent tool for students to have at their fingertips and build their brain muscles,” said Rep. Finstad. “The creativity and innovation that Grace and Sia put into this app is beyond impressive, and I am proud to have their submission representing Minnesota’s First District.”
Simon Wilke, a sophomore at Century High School was selected as the second-place winner for his submission “Pure Habit”. Simon’s app generates daily health and wellness tasks for users to complete, encouraging them to routinely establish healthy habits.
The Congressional App Challenge launched in 2013 as an effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, and to encourage students to learn coding and computer science skills. First-place winners from each Congressional district are invited to demonstrate their apps to Members of Congress in an exhibit in the U.S. Capitol Building.
First Place – “Design Your Brain” by Grace Kaspar and Sia Sood – John Adams Middle School, Rochester
The teammates created the app “Design Your Brain” which uses engaging and interactive tools to improve attention, memory, and cognitive skills. Grace and Sia were inspired to create their app to address a lack of neuroeducation in schools with the goal of educating middle-schoolers about their brain and improving brain health. Watch the app demo here.
“‘Design Your Brain’ is an excellent tool for students to have at their fingertips and build their brain muscles,” said Rep. Finstad. “The creativity and innovation that Grace and Sia put into this app is beyond impressive, and I am proud to have their submission representing Minnesota’s First District.”
Simon Wilke, a sophomore at Century High School was selected as the second-place winner for his submission “Pure Habit”. Simon’s app generates daily health and wellness tasks for users to complete, encouraging them to routinely establish healthy habits.
The Congressional App Challenge launched in 2013 as an effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, and to encourage students to learn coding and computer science skills. First-place winners from each Congressional district are invited to demonstrate their apps to Members of Congress in an exhibit in the U.S. Capitol Building.
First Place – “Design Your Brain” by Grace Kaspar and Sia Sood – John Adams Middle School, Rochester
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Creator’s Description: “Design Your Brain” educates users about their brain, as well as improves their brain skills (attention span, cognitive skills, and memory). These skills are not taught at schools or communities and we middle schoolers need to develop these skills to better prepare for challenges in life.”
Second Place – “Pure Habit” by Simon Wilke – Century High School, Rochester
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Creator’s Description: “PureHabit gives users 3 health and wellness benefiting tasks every day for them to complete. The tasks feature different completion methods to encourage a mix of healthy habits that will be retained.”
