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A student-built video game that encourages Hawaiian youth to take pride in their history and culture is this year’s sole winner for Hawaii in the annual Congressional App Challenge.
The Nani app was coded by a team of eighth grade students at the public charter school DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach: Jaylen Rabago, Kaden Hieger, Aureanna Inay and Zaydi Willis, who were led by teacher Cerina Epple.
“Nani” means beautiful in Hawaiian. “We wanted the app to show underrepresented kids (i.e., Hawaiian kids) that their culture is beautiful,” and to promote diversity and cultural exploration, the students said in a group statement.
In the game, created for age 2 and up, the user is asked to dress up a character in traditional hula attire in themes such as “yellow hibiscus” or “orange sunset.” With each click, facts about Hawaiian culture and history appear in pop-up windows. Points are earned in the form of kalo, or taro, when the user dresses the character correctly.
The team also wanted to encourage good mental health through connection to culture. “Hawaiian children are using social media and apps at a really young age these days and are exposed to mainly Western beauty standards and culture. We decided it’s time for Hawaiian children to see themselves represented in an app. … We hope kids have fun playing this app, and that the app prevents important practices such as hula from dying out.”
Epple says next steps for the students include coding more levels beyond the
current three. The initial version of Nani is already available for public use on Scratch, a coding platform for children, with additional platforms to come.
The DreamHouse team celebrated its win for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District in a video call with U.S. Rep. Ed Case. There were not enough applications to chose a winner this year
for the 2nd Congressional District.
Case said the Nani app shows these local students “have the skill set, imagination and resolve to compete against the best of our young people nationwide in science, technology, engineering and math, along with the potential to lead the next generations of
computer science and technology.”
The Congressional App Challenge is an official national initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, in which members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle and high school students. The App Challenge encourages students to learn coding and pursue careers in computer science.
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