MILWAUKEE — Cole Bucek is a junior at Greendale High School.
He spent a recent Monday evening working on coding to program a robot for their upcoming First Tech Challenge.
“It’s programmed in Java pretty much,” Bucek said. “We have a lot of stuff, there’s a few errors as it’s a work in progress, but other than that, it functions pretty well as of now.”
Bucek is getting better at writing JavaScript. It’s a language used in programming computer code. Last semester, he didn’t know how to write it.
“I didn’t know this language. I’m currently coding right now in the same language I coded there, I just didn’t know it yet at the time,” Bucek recalled. “That’s when I was still learning it, and now I guess I know it pretty well.”
He taught himself, so he and two of his friends could create an app for the Congressional App Challenge. Evie Skibicki is one of those friends.
“We’re a community-based team and we’re always looking for ways to help kids be healthier, learn STEM, pretty much help thee future of our generation or our world,” Skibicki said.
She, Bucek and Riess Steinman came up with an idea to make an app called the “Brain Food: Nutri Quiz.” Steinman loaded the app with the questions.
“How many cups of water a day do you need? What a good breakfast is, what are some vegetables over others you should eat more of,” Steinman said, noting the questions the app asks.
They submitted their app — along with a pitch video — to the Congressional App Challenge. In December, they found out they won the challenge for Wisconsin’s First Congressional District.
For a team who didn’t have someone who knew how to write that code language, it was pretty exciting.
“To know that I just picked this language up, and I had done something apparently amazing with it, that was mind-blowing,” Bucek said.
“It kind of opened our eyes to show us that really anything is possible,” Skibicki added.
The school, and their coach, Aleks Skbicki, are super proud. They say these kids are setting themselves up for life outside of school.
“No matter what field you’re in, technology, coding, is going to impact that in the future, and these kids are growing up right in the heart of it,” said Aleks Skibicki.
Growing up in the heart of it and getting a jump start on learning in their potential career fields, while getting some cool Congressional recognition, too.