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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

Chilton County middle school and high school students have the opportunity to show off their coding skills in the Congressional App Challenge.

Congressman Gary Palmer for Alabama District 6 which includes Chilton County is sponsoring the contest, along with 249 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The Congressional App Challenge is the largest series of student coding competitions in the world,” Tim Lordan, executive director of the Internet Education Foundation, official sponsor of the contest, said in a press release.

Winners receive $250 in Amazon Web Services credits, official recognition from their Congressman and the winning apps will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year.

Official rules for what the app needs to include and information on how to register for the contest are available here. 

Students may also choose to compete as a team of up to four people.

Apps developed in the past year will be accepted.

The deadline for submission is Nov. 1.

The contest is designed to get students interested in learning to write computer code, something many Chilton County Schools students have gotten a taste of in gifted, STEM and Project Lead the Way classes.

According to the contest website, many who enter the contest are beginners at learning to code and create programs.

Resources on learning how to code are available here.

Contest organizers also hopes to encourage students of all backgrounds to pursue jobs in STEM fields.

According to a CAC press release, “By some estimates, there are nearly a quarter of a million unfilled programming jobs in the U.S. The CAC is a congressional effort to maintain American competitiveness, by proactively inspiring our youth and encouraging them to pursue these crucial skills.”