Australian Primary School Finalists

New South Wales

PERL SQUAD, DANEBANK ANGLICAN SCHOOL FOR GIRLS HURSTVILLE & ST PATRICK’S PRIMARY SCHOOL KOGARAH

Giving Goodness is an online charity application where people donate items they don’t require using a easy to use form. When you do submit a donation, the app will prompt you with a reminder email. Giving Goodness will partner with local charities, shelters and social workers who will use our app to see a list of donations ready for pick up. We want to help support the most vulnerable people within our community. The purpose of giving goodness is to reduce the time spent donating to various charities, whilst improving the lives of others who need our assistance to live. 

STEAMA6, EMANUEL SCHOOL

STEAMA 6 is an app created to empower girls and inspire them to get involved in STEM areas. This app is aimed at primary school students but especially girls. It encourages girls to see themselves as STEM superheroes through relatable female role models. Our app involves learning areas in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics and Astronomy. The low amount of women is STEM fields is constantly in the media. In our primary school alone, we know that more boys inspire to work in STEM than girls. Our app provides lesson plans, information about us, courses, games quizzes and much more. 

E.M.I TEAM, NORTHBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOL & SAINT ANDREWS CATHEDRAL SCHOOL

Top Dog is an app aimed at new and old dog owners, it contains general information like the average food and exercise intake according to size. It contains in-app purchases from a crafty website called Redbubble which contains merchandise. Also with a quiz that identifies whether you are ready for a dog with information to get you started. We also include a map that allows you to find nearby dog-friendly locations, you can also talk to our friendly chatbot, Top Dog, which informs you how to report abuse. So whether you are new or old, Top Dog is for you. 

SUPERSTAR CODERS, SANTA SABINA COLLEGE

Share2Care is a mobile app that connects businesses and individuals to charities. Share2Care aims to reduce the number of food going to landfill, using this app. Consequently, charities can collect surplus products for distribution amongst the less fortunate community. When logged in, businesses, supermarkets and individuals are able to submit a post with their name, product, quantity, contact, and location. This data is then published on the map and search page, which charities can view and collect the items to give to the needy. Share2Care is a unique application focusing on donating discarded food (in good condition) to the poor. 

RWORLD, ST MARY’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

WHY ISN’T ANYONE RECYCLING?!? This is a question that comes up a lot but most people don’t know the answer to this. Well, we know. Many people are not bothered, or maybe it’s because recycling is too much of a trouble to do! If you install our free app then recycling will become much easier to do. But what else is involved in recycling? REUSING! Which is also why we have made reshare – a program within the app to make reusing (or sharing) easier too. So help save our world by using Rworld!

Victoria

SUPER TECHIES, SHELFORD GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL

The My Active Buddies app will help motivate kids to enjoy active, healthy play in amazing local parks. The app is currently designed to connect 8-12 year old kids in the Glen Eira area with their community in a way that’s friendly – and fun!. The app promotes a park meet-up on the 1st Saturday of each month and shows how many kids plan to come, with a handy link to the City of Glen Eira website for the location of each park. The event details can also be easily shared with friends.

SUPER TECH GIRLS, SHELFORD GIRLS GRAMMAR

Over the past few years, we have noticed the harmful effects of the environment have been increasing rapidly. We all believe it is important to educate younger children about the threats to the environment and what they can do to make a difference. “TreeHouse” is an app designed to educate lower primary school students about the harmful effects of rubbish and pollution towards the environment. The app starts with login screen. Once login, it will go to main screen which has three section – Sky, Sea and Land and also has a Recycle and Waste. Each section in turn has educational video, a game and help section for the students to learn. The main screen also has section for Help, Settings, Feedback, About Us and Treehouse videos and games. All the app sections are kids friendly and focus on educating users on all aspects of the environment and how to save them. App inventor is used for coding the app, scratch for developing games, and Vimeo for developing app videos and iMovies for developing demo video and pitch videos. Tiny Db for storing user databases.

South Australia

TECH GIRLS BLACK FOREST, BLACK FOREST PRIMARY SCHOOL

Our app provides organization. It is an organising app like a calendar but with reminders and time schedules. It also includes stress-free tips and advice. The app doesn’t have a tick it off yourself system but gives reminders of when it should be done. This app is created for teenagers/teens starting high school. It will provide a safe environment for teens to put work, commitments or any other tasks they have to do on individual calendars. Our app is unique because it has reminders/alerts for when they should be working or doing something and when it’s due. 

FLOW, ST PETERS GIRLS SCHOOL

Our app’s mission is to improve the lives of kids with a disability, mental or learning difficulties through social connection and inclusion by providing a unique crowdsourced information resource. The idea of the app is to provide a way for kids to connect with each other and provide support through an anonymous moderated “posting system”, which allows them to ask and answer questions about the unique problems they face everyday. We will seek sponsorship from government and community to fund the development, monitoring and marketing of the app as well as providing opportunities to access professional care where required.

Western Australia

ANIMAL AWARENESS, ALL SAINTS COLLEGE

Our app is about raising awareness about endangered animal species. It is one of the few apps that teaches kids how to save endangered animals. This app is for kids who want animal species to survive and not become extinct. This app persuades kids to help animals keep their habitats. This app is made for children who don’t have education about endangered animals. This app helps everyone learn about the helpless, non-heard of animals from around WA. Every time your child completes a level, he\she will collect a daily prize. To make sure we save the animals, halt biodiversity loss!!!! 

SUPER4, ALL SAINTS COLLEGE

Our app provides Western Australian people with free education about recycling. It can help people to understand that if you do one thing it can lead to another helpful thing for our whole planet. It’s a family game and you can play against family members and check your points to see if you are a good recycler. The player earns points to encourage them to recycle or re-use in real life then it becomes a habit. It also encourages them to have a worm farm, keep chickens, find a recycling place, and use a re-usable coffee cup. 

Queensland

MEDIREWARD, GOODNA STATE SCHOOL

Medireward is an app to help children remember to take their medicine. For children who do not like to take medicine, the app gives them tokens so they are motivated to take it. The idea is to support parents in remembering to give the medicine to their child and to reduce the amount of tantrums when giving medicine by allowing them to reward their child 

CAPTAIN TOTORO, WEST END STATE SCHOOL

The main purpose of our app is to give our busy road users the vital information they need if they hit an animal while driving. It also has a feature for users to exactly pinpoint the location of the injured or killed animals using GPS coordinates. These GPS coordinates can be used by animal rescue organisations like RSPCA and WIRES. Our app is not only for helping animals but it also has a ‘Kids Mode’ which is designed to educate young people around the native animals of Australia. This mode is has amazing information and it does not require wi-fi. 

HEALTHY HEROES, CITIPOINTE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

Looking for ways to be healthier? Yes2HealthyLife does it all! It helps teenagers and adults live a healthier life.We know that your life is busy and you don’t always prioritise exercise ,healthy eating and sleeping but our app will help you make smart decisions. The daily goal tab is based on exercise and gives you activities to complete over a period of time. Most adults and teenagers have phones now and people try and search up different ways to look after your body but Yes2HealthyLife gives multiple options to exercise, sleep and eat. Yes2HealthyLife is a great option for you. 

SPORTY 6, MANSFIELD STATE SCHOOL 

The problems we are solving are related to Education and Health. Our app helps kids to actively travel to school and learn how to travel to school safety and independently. The app combines fitness, games and education towards walking to school safely. The app has a survey for school/ teachers to record how students travel to school eg. Walking, cycling, scooting, carpooling and public transport. Then if you actively travel you can unlock games and prizes you receive at school. You can enter your data daily to help you chances of progressing through levels of your game. 

CSS TEAM 3, CRAIGSLEA STATE SCHOOL

Our app connects people who needs translators in their everyday lives with volunteer translators to help them communicate. People who need translators and volunteer translators both go onto the app and create a profile. Then the people who need translators can search for a translator for the right day and language to help them out. We think that this app will help new migrants and refugees who have come to Australia and are learning conversational English. Our app provides a difference from other app because it is connecting people together, and creating a community for people who need it. People who are moving to a new country don’t just need help with a new language, they need help with everything. 

TYPING TROOPS, GOODNA STATE SCHOOL

It is an app to calm people down. If you are having anger issues you can go on to the app and you could take your mind off your anger. You can do this by yoga, meditation, breathing in and out, listening to relaxing music, and taking your frustration out on the punching bag. So after you have done all the things in the app to calm you down and you’re not angry you will be happy again. 

MY PET PAL, GOOD NEWS LUTHERAN COLLEGE

Did you know that in the past year there were over 70,000 cases of animal abuse reported in Australia? The RSPCA is the Australian not-for-profit organisation that works to protect animals from cruelty; each year they rescue over 100,000 animals! Many cases of animal cruelty are due to animals being improperly cared for and examples include neglect and starvation. Our app, “My Pet Pal” aims to reduce this problem by educating the next generation of pet owners. “My Pet Pal” provides interactive information, games and quizzes that educate primary-school aged children about the responsibilities of pet ownership.

FUR AIDES, WEST END STATE SCHOOL

Want to save native animals while creating cute avatars? This app is what you need. Fur Aides is an awesome way to help wildlife: • Volunteer for animal carers • Browse galleries and add your photos • Sponsor your favourite animals and their supporters • Play quizzes and test your knowledge You’ll earn Paw Points to buy furry avatars. Meet other Fur Aides on our Blog and Instagram, or make your avatars into emoji and screensavers. Earn more Paw Points to buy crazy accessories! Enhancing your avatar is fun, and every point you earn helps to save the environment for our native creatures. 

REEF RANGERS,  ST JOHN THE BAPTIST PRIMARY SCHOOL, GLADSTONE

“Rubbish off the Reef” is an educational app that helps children between the ages of 7-11 decide which bin to place their lunch rubbish into. Our school currently does not recycle lunch rubbish because children were not correctly putting rubbish in the correct bins – general and recyclable. This meant that all the recyclable rubbish was contaminated and couldn’t be recycled. We hope with education, through the use of our app, we can have recycling bins put back into our lunch areas, reducing landfill and preventing litter ending up in our waterways. Children will play a sorting game to help them learn which bin to put common rubbish from their lunch boxes in. Their goal is to make the emoji smile. If they are incorrect with their bin choice the emoji frowns and they have another go. Rubbish off the Reef also includes links to websites that provide more information. 

Australian Primary School United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Awards

COMMUNITY AWARD – THE LAKERS, LAKE CLARENDON STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

Matches consumers with farms and creates relationships. Helps you find road side produce stalls using google maps it also shows you the prices that farmers have given us to put on our app. It will also show you what they sell and a quote that they have also given us. It will provide you with information about where they are whether it has seasonal produce or not. Our app is designed for adults in the Lockyer valley who sometimes think that the shops prices are a bit too much for them. It provides less handled fruit and vegetables.

COMMUNITY AWARD – SSC SCHOO-BER, SANTA SABINA COLLEGE

Schoo-ber is a school-based carpooling/ride-sharing app that is safe and easy to use. The number of cars on the roads are major contributors to our environmental problems. Most primary school children are driven to school by their parents, and mainly in a car with many empty seats. Our app gives parents from the Santa Sabina community the opportunity to get on board and help the environment, as well as our traffic problems.

EDUCATION AWARD – SUPER 5’S, MANSFIELD STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

The topic of our app is writing. We think that our app helps children by developing the skills and abilities of our young authors. There is a workshop for writing your own stories and also an editing space! Other people using this app such as peers can help give you feedback and suggest to improve while being positive. Writing prompts are included to extend beyond your imagination when you begin to write. This app also connects you to the community of writing, check out the library section to read stories written by other mini authors. Also, follow and become friends with others to be one of the first to see their latest posts. 

EDUCATION AWARD – PETFINDER, ST MARY’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL (NSW)

Research has proven most missing pets are located close to their home. Our Petfinder app, helps pet owners locate missing pets by allowing them to create their pet’s profile with photo, name and breed. When a pet goes missing it activates pet owners and neighbourhoods to report and locate missing pets. When a neighbour locates a pet via the app, it will be taken to the vet to contact the pet’s owner and to check for injuries. The app will appeal to pet owners, council rangers, veterinary clinics and everyone in our community!

Education award – TECHIE TACOS, ALL SAINTS COLLEGE (WA)

We think education is the most important UN global goals and learning to read and write is part of this. Our app is designed for Year 1 and 2 students who struggle with their reading skills. Reading and spelling are connected, and this app helps with learning word families. The player reads a sound that is written on a basket at the bottom of the screen, Example OAT. You pick the apple that makes a word, Example G (G+OAT). If the incorrect answer is chosen, then a worm appears in the apple and encourages the player to keep trying. 

TECHIE TACOS, ALL SAINTS COLLEGE (WA)

We think education is the most important UN global goals and learning to read and write is part of this. Our app is designed for Year 1 and 2 students who struggle with their reading skills. Reading and spelling are connected, and this app helps with learning word families. The player reads a sound that is written on a basket at the bottom of the screen, Example OAT. You pick the apple that makes a word, Example G (G+OAT). If the incorrect answer is chosen, then a worm appears in the apple and encourages the player to keep trying. 

EDUCATION AWARD – COOL GIRLS, ALL SAINTS COLLEGE (WA)

Our product is an app to teach everyone how to become aware of treating animals properly. We are very committed to help animals live in the best environment they can, so this app teaches kids how important animals are in our world. Some features in this app are Games and Fun facts. One of our games is called Animal Dressing room where you must dress the animal fit for its environment. We want to make a difference in our environment and we hope our app will intrigue young people to learn about them too. 

ENVIRONMENT AWARD – ECO TEAM, CITIPOINTE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE (QLD)

Have you ever seen rubbish lying around your school yard, your local park, a forest while you’re exploring the great outdoors, or seen plastic bottles floating past you in the ocean? This should not be happening! This is harming your environment., , Did you know that 5.2 trillion plastic bags are in our oceans! 700 of our precious marine species are in danger of becoming extinct because of human carelessness. Over 1 million birds are killed ruthlessly each year because of litter., As young people growing up in Australia, we are concerned about the amount of rubbish carelessly discarded in our environment. We are concerned that the next generation will never be able to learn about marine life. If this continues, the ecosystem will collapse, all because we are choosing to ignore the damage we are inflicting upon the Earth., Well, we have a solution! PROTECHT is a fun, interactive educational quiz app that teaches and informs primary students about the impact of their rubbish on the environment. It is important to be aware of our Earth because we only have one, and this is the app to test your knowledge. 

ENVIRONMENT AWARD – WESS WATERWISE, WEST END STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

Our app is called Water Wise. In the app there are two games and a store there is also an info page. When you open the app the first page is the log in page but you can also sign up. The sign-up button is located at the top. There is triangle located in a small box that will change you to sign-up screen when you press it. On the info page it tells you about us. In the store you purchase hats and faces for your avatar. You can also donate to water wise to help us to help the government to save water. 

EQUALITY – SISTTERS, GOOD NEWS LUTHERAN SCHOOL (QLD)

The “It’s in the Bag” app helps people donate to an annual charity drive run by Share the Dignity. The charity helps homeless women by providing essential items such as toiletries and hygiene products. The women who receive the bags feel appreciated and respected. There are about 4000 women in Brisbane who need help this very moment. Using the checklist in our app, people can easily see what items they have already collected or might need to collect to support the charity. Once a bag is filled, the app will tell the user where the local collection points are located.

HEALTH AWARD – FOOD PYRAMID, CITIPOINTE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE (QLD)

Food Smart is an interactive research app that enables the user to choose and decide which foods are healthy options and good for their bodies. Food Smart teaches you to live healthily. You will learn to make smart decisions concerning your food choices which will help you to feel good. Sometimes you think you are making sensible choices but food or drink is actually full of sugar. Food Smart is aimed at 7 – 12 year olds as they are at a good age to form life long habits.

HEALTH AWARD – CONQUERIT! MOUNT GRAVATT EAST STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

Conquer it is an app that helps people whom experience anxiety as well as lack of organization skills. It provides uses with a wide range of optional strategies such as meditation, yoga and fitness which you can choses your level of difficulty as you go and pay for the full extreme version. Another advantage of “conquer” it is that it includes your very own mood track management system diary. Our app also contains a scan of your student ID and go-card. A great benefit is it is free from the app store and requires no wi-fi or internet. 

HEALTH AWARD – DM INNOVATORS, SANTA SABINA COLLEGE STRATHFIELD (NSW)

Our Minds and bodies are intertwined, the quality of a person’s physical and mental health is what we call wellbeing. A strong and healthy body is a combination of a positive attitude to exercise, nutrition and lifestyle. We created an app called BeeWell to support and nurture the health and wellbeing of children aged from 10-15. Our app consists of seven challenges that encourage children to be more physically active, and aware of the nutrition their body needs to function, like consuming fruit and enough water. The challenges are presented in a fun and interactive way, where children complete them with family and friends before posting their efforts onto a social community board. Are you ready to BeeWell?

PEACE AWARD – YUMMY PANDAS, WEST END STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

Our product is an anti-bullying app for children aged 5-17. This is because we wanted a wide variety of ages to expand our users. Our app will be fun and filled with information for the user to cope and get over cyberbullying. Our product will have large font, large buttons, bright colors, pictures, and will be targeted at the age of the child using the app. Why is Our Project important? Cyber bullying is a major issue for children, other young people, some of us have experienced it and bullying is not good for our mental health. Members of the Yummy Pandas team had experience of this sort of bullying. Who is it targeted at? This is an app available on all devices, is targeting children aged 5-17 is going regional. We are going to wait until later in the process to make it different languages. We have segmented our market into four areas, including information for parents. 

POVERTY AWARD – TEEN WORKS, GOLDEN BEACH STATE SCHOOL (QLD)

Are you ready to find your teen dream job but don’t think you have the skills you need? Teen Works is a solution to the problem many teens have when trying to find a job. Our App provides advice on how to be that successful applicant. No more worrying about how to present yourself, what to say and do. Teen Works has it all. Teen Works includes a categorised list of jobs suitable for your age group. This user-friendly App also allows employers to add jobs. So be job ready, build your knowledge and confidence with Teen Work. Teen Works makes your dream work!

Australian Secondary School Finalists

Western Australian Secondary School

CO2 & U, Shenton College

Our app is designed to spread awareness of the impact animal agriculture is having on the environment. CO2 & U deeply believe that a greater understanding and awareness is the first step towards solving a problem and making a difference in the world. Our goal is to convince one person to reduce their meat intake by showing them the impact they are having through fun challenges, calculating their CO2 contribution and providing possible meat substitutes for most popular meals. Every person makes a difference and the more people we can reach the greater a difference to the environment we can make. 

Community Connector, Penrhos College

We are a start-up called Community Connector. Our aim is simple; we want to make finding community service easier for high school students (between the years 7 to 12). The process of using our product requires schools to pay for a subscription per student and parent login. The students and parents will be able to download an app onto their smart device. Students are able to view and apply for three different types of opportunities that include community service, company held career conferences and organization run competitions. 

South Australian Secondary School

Savvy Shoppers, St Peters Girls School

SavvyShoppers is an interactive app that teaches primary school students, between the ages of 6-12 about being responsible consumers. This app is based on the United Nation goal of Responsible Production and Consumption. The user creates and account, in which, they can complete various missions and earnt green points -which they can use to customize their character. Depending on the efficiency whilst completing the app and how much waste they produce affects how many points they earn. SavvyShoppers is a unique experience for the user because it is an entertaining and effective way to learn about being a responsible consumer. 

SHEroes, St Peters Girls School

HerStory aims to educate and empower minorities, as well as magnifying the voices of minority groups across not just Australia but the world. The application has various features, including articles about equality, quizzes and other dynamic content. Through the utilisation of these features, the app is accessible to many different people, making the app ideal for a wide range of people who learn through the use of different techniques, creating a larger market. The speech-to-audio element of our app fundamentally shows what it is all about – available and accessible to everyone, giving any user the equal opportunity to enjoy HerStory. 

The Hopelings, St Peters Girls School

Our app is designed to help kids understand what it means to have tolerance and to make good decisions on their own. It uses situations which they might have to face to teach them how to handle it well. Of course we understand that everyone is different, but there is some common ground in what is right and what is wrong. We believe that children are our future and that our future should not consist of things that undermine minorities. We believe that if we can teach people at a younger age to think with an open mind, then we can hopefully help make this world a better place for everyone. 

Victorian Secondary School

Tiny Trio, Kilvington Grammar School

Our interactive app provides teen girls with education about money management. Girls can set goals for themselves to save up for a desired item, or just to keep track of their earnings and spending’s. This app helps girls learn about ideas and strategies to effectively save their money. We made this app specified for teen girls because we think that for many centuries it has been the norm for boys to take care of money in a family. Women will be able to manage money without the help of any men with this app. This is not exclusive to girls. 

8B-A, St. Aloysius College

Find Me a Sitter provides parents with babysitters/carers, no matter their situation. It targets children with special needs, disabilities etc. Our app will be like uber for babysitting. Our app is unique because we are providing care for kids and even adults with disabilities and we will hope that it will be one of the safest. There is a section in the app where you can select the special needs of your child or family member. We are encouraging parents with kids who have special needs and disabilities to sign up because no child is too hard to babysit. 

C.A.R.E, Kilvington Grammar School

The service this app provides connectivity for teenagers dealing with issues bigger than themselves. This device acts as a channel towards other revenues for teenagers who need help with problems they may not feel comfortable with telling their parents. This app will direct teenagers to various helplines including shelters, advice on bullying or anxiety. There are many government funded organizations for helping people however they are generally only operating from 9am-5pm. However, teenagers tend to need help outside of these hours. Our app will help connect teenagers to help sources 24/7 enabling them to feel always feel safe and secure. 

Vision Quest, St Aloysius

Our app is a simple game with many features and designs. You can simply start by signing up and setting your profile adding friends or invite them to get the game more interesting then the hunt beings, look for rubbish and try to find the bin then weight, wait for the ding and scan the barcode . Try to beat other people our highest score at the moment is 50,000g, the points get added with how much the item weighs. With this app we hope this will slowly affect the community and make it a better place. We hope this app will help our generation with the future. 

New South Wales Secondary School

Goal Diggers, Armidale High School

Resettlement in Armidale (R.I.A), is a supportive service for refugees and migrants arriving in Armidale. With built-in features including language translation and location, our app provides vital information for new residents arriving in Armidale. Our aim is to build partnerships with companies to create mutual benefits for both the user and the business. Our app will advertise businesses as suggestions for refugees seeking help in navigating our town. Our main focus businesses include doctor surgeries, dentists, and supermarkets. Information from these businesses provided on the app will include contact information for companies, emergency phone numbers, services available, price and location. 

Sunshine Girls, St John’s College, Woodlawn

The app, Rayse, is based on the ideas of community, charity and sustainability. The 2017 Lismore Floods prompted community generosity and support. However, there was not a common platform for this. Rayse would meet this need. Initially, Rayse focuses on garage sales. Not only will people be decluttering/reusing, they will also be supporting others. Rayse allows people to access dates/locations/information on garage sales and/or advertise their sales. Sellers would nominate a local participating charity to which they would donate a percentage of their takings. In the future, Rayse would be used for many different forms of fundraising within the community. 

Talk to the Hand – My Bucket’s Full, CC Home School

The app is for people with sensory processing disorder. Designed to help people organize themselves, feel calm and relaxed, ready to face the world. The app includes choices between • Sensory Wake Up; activities that assist you to alert your senses and get you in the optimal zone for the day • Sensory Pit Stop; activities that assist you to refocus and refuel yourself to stay on task • My Bucket; allows you to choose what sense you want to focus on and will give you activities to help desensitize it if your bucket is feeling overloaded (high), or activate your senses if your bucket is empty (low). • Other general activities such as drawing and calming music and games. 

Pawgirlz, Maitland State High School

The Off-Leash app helps prevents and decreases dog attacks. Our idea provides better access to information about dog training. Use the App to become a part of the dog training and safety local community. Users create an account, and we make it as simple as possible to teach your dog sensible behaviour. With a click of a button you can watch video tutorials on how to train your pet, or access a map that directs you to your local pet facilities. Using Off Leash, users can communicate with other dog owners, organise meetups, and get advice from other owners. 

Queensland Secondary School

Domestic Angels, Gladstone State High & Boyne Island State High School

The Domestic Angels app was made to allow victims of domestic and family violence (DFV) to contact Police without being detected by their abuser. This app has been disguised as a cleaning app to avoid detection by the abuser and to stop inadvertent use or abuse of the app. However, the app allows the victim to contact Police using three quiet, simple and fast steps while keeping the abuser completely oblivious to what the victim is doing and thus keeping the victim safe. The victim’s message is sent by SMS directly to the Police and includes the victim’s location making it easier for Police to arrive quickly. 

Unicorn Girls, All Hallows’ School

Each year, 271 Australians drown from ocean rips; making rips one of the biggest killers. Alarmingly, one third are tourists, highlighting the urgency to educate inbound migrants, tourists and the Australian public about beach dangers so they stay safe and feel comfortable in the water. To combat this problem, we’ve developed Ripsure, a beach safety app. The app is designed to educate users about rips and how to spot them. It also aims to decrease the number of beach related incidents and drownings in an engaging manner that involves games and videos. Additionally, it also includes information about sun safety, what the surf lifesaving flags mean and what to do in the case of an emergency. 

Blue Buddy, St. Aidans Anglican Girls School

Depression impacts over 3 million Australians. It is well recognised that depression can be a lifelong illness that causes extreme suffering for the victim, however the negative implications of the illness on the families of sufferers is not well recognised. Our app (Blue Buddy) provides family members of depression sufferers with the necessary support to allow them provide care while maintaining their own mental health. Our app is unique in its focus on those who care for and live with someone suffering from this debilitating mental illness. 

JJIA, Earnshaw State College

Our app, Time out, is a stress-relieving app that mainly focuses on the ages of 13-25. It includes a variety of elements that will help you calm down, relax and allow the stress and anxiety to leave you. These features include a small game at the beginning, a ‘plan it out’ section where you are able to organise your week and time manage. There is a ‘relax and reflect’, which contains a variety of choices of soothing music. After conducting research, Stress-free agency, found that helping others is stress reliving so we added a ‘help-out’ section where you’re able to contact helplines, read through research and then write your own experiences. This app has unique value as it connects people in need to people in stress. Overall, Time Out is an app that can help millions of students who are constantly affected with stress and anxiety.

Brigidine Go Girls, Brigidine College

In Australia, one in three women experiences physical violence from the age of fifteen (Our Watch, 2018). While men must remain accountable for this crisis, it is simply a fact that we, as young women, must prepare ourselves for the dangers. Our app will aid women in feeling safe in all situations by providing safety tips – including aspects of self-defence – as well as emergency contacts to police and helplines. This app is exclusively aimed at women between the ages of 15 and 25, therefore fostering a ‘made for women by women’ community. We believe there is a significant gap in the market for a woman-centric self-defence app that focusses on safety, and therefore success is imminent.  

P-Cubed, Good News Lutheran School

P-Cubed’s free multi-platform app, Plastic Pollution Preventers, will help young Queenslanders consider how much plastic they use in their daily lives and its environmental impacts. The app allows users to record the quantity of plastic used and make better choices when purchasing products and choosing recyclable and reusable plastic bags. By doing this we hope to reduce the 8 million tonnes of plastic that flows into the world’s waterways, oceans and landfill each year. Our app is unique for two reasons; it allows users to track their plastic use, and it has been designed specifically with young Queenslanders in mind. 

Fine nines, Mount Saint Michael’s College

“Balance Me” aims to help you maintain a balanced and healthy lifestyle. All users need to do is tell us what their week looks like as well as some basic personal information, so we can create a specific and helpful schedule to assist in juggling school or work, physical activity, relaxation and social time. “Balance Me” is created by students for students, to help find an equilibrium in life. It is set apart from all other products because it considers what is essential for a healthy life – a blend of work, exercise and relaxation. Enjoy the generated schedule which will help you to become the best that you can be. 

Indigenous, Townsville State High School

Our app encourages people to get involved in other cultures, particularly our Indigenous cultures. This app will enable people to read traditional dreamtime stories, learn more about Indigenous cultures and their fight for land rights. Later through further development of our app we will incorporate a further game aspect where quizzes can be completed to gain Indigenous ‘artefacts’ that can decorate the users Indigenous garden. With future development this app would also enable the user to scan QR codes located on the Castle Hill Goat Track. When these codes are scanned they will show information about the Indigenous history relating to that item and location. 

STEM Cells, Noosa District State High School, Pomona Campus

This app allows teenagers to find volunteering opportunities within their local area. Our services create memorable and positive experiences and are beneficial for motivated students as they can find a job they are capable to do and passionate about. We hope our app will enlighten kids about the many experiences they can be apart of and help them decide what they would like to achieve in the near future. This app contains: Log In/Sign Up Page, Registration, Terms and Conditions, Home Page, Calendar, Profile, Volunteering Organisations (Humanitarian, Community/Environment and Animal Volunteering), Top 3 recommended organisations, Local Events and a Map. 

Australian United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Awards

Education Award – Green Lantern Corps, Cannon Hill Anglican College (Qld)

Our app is an interactive app that is aimed at 8-14-year-olds living in Australia. Our aim is to inform children about how to dispose of items in a fun and interactive way. It enables the user to choose which bin to put a variety of different objects in. The app then provides a short, entertaining story about what happens to the item. The app also gives the user interesting websites to visit, ways to reuse items and what happens to items after you put them in a bin. 

Education Award – Cryptography Girls, Cannon Hill Anglican College (Qld)

This app provides education and safety. It helps educate children and adults on the importance of train safety and track safety, in a fun and informative format. This app is aimed at 8-12 year olds, who may be travelling on trains alone or with elder siblings. Young children usually are not educated on train safety, since their normal schools do not cover that topic, putting them at a very high risk of train accidents; compared with adults. The unique value that this app provides is an education on safety, which would normally be boring, but here is exciting and you want to continue and learn more, because you do not realise you are learning. 

Environment Award – Galaxy Girls, Good Shepherd Lutheran College (Qld)

Our R³ app teaches students how to recycle in a fun and innovative way. It has been designed to encourage the younger generation to be enthusiastic about practicing the three R’s. Aimed specifically at students from Prep to Year Five, it will generate excitement about recycling through a competition while also being informative. Our app will be the hub for the competition where students can clock up points, compare their scores to that of their classmates and eventually other schools. It has information about what can and cannot be recycled and ideas for reducing household waste and creatively re-using items in new and innovative ways. Our app is unique in the way that it uses a competition to inspire students to recycle. After researching the app market, we have found that our app is original and very different to other apps of the same category. 

Environment Award – Code Monkeys, Clairvaux MacKillop College (Secondary) and St Bernards Catholic Primary School (Qld)

LitTerly is an app designed to encourage people to pick up litter in a fun and rewarding way. It allows users to photograph litter they have collected, classify that litter by amount collected, and then share that photo on the app. Users earn points based on the amount of litter they collect (bonus points for recycling). They move up different levels as their points increase. High scorers will show on the Litterboard. The app also provides educational facts about the effects of litter in the environment. It also allows users to create their own clean-up events and groups. 

Environment Award – EnviroLife, Mountain Creek State School (Qld)

Envirolife is an environmental app that targets children from the age of six and over. it teaches kids about plants and how to use them in every day cooking. The app looks towards teaching children about the environment in a fun and easy way. It features six different herbs that have identifiable photos for you to work out which herb it is. Each herb has a recipe in the food section, that will help kids get involved in cooking. All meals are healthy, delicious, and will have your children cooking for the whole family in no time!  

Environment Award – RemFriends, St Peters Girls School (SA)

We are Rem Friends. The app we have created is Remmunity. Remmunity primarily aims to address and solve a vital problem within Australia’s growing society. We aim to solve the problem of the increasing amount of landfill and the impact it has on the environment. To do this, we have created an app where people in the users community can trade usable unwanted items that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Our App is free to public use and allows people to trade, give and remove re-usable unwanted items through the recycling process.

Equality Award – SSC Five, Santa Sabina College (NSW)

“A Helping Hand” is a social networking system for volunteers and elderly people to contact each other. After signing up and completing a simple online survey about their qualifications and/or special needs, it gives the volunteers the opportunity to provide assistance or company for the elderly. Our target market is mainly centered towards elderly people and their families who would like some help for themselves or for their older relatives. A Helping Hand is a completely free app, unlike other competitor apps in this topic area, this makes it completely affordable for everyone, and it really sets it apart. 

Equality Award-  STEM@Collegiate, St Michael’s Collegiate School (Tas)

Here at Collegiate, we are creating an app to further the STEM education provided to the girls at our school, leading to more young ladies graduating as successful engineers. This app will (hopefully) gather the funds required to build our new STEM building, allowing us to further our schooling in the area of STEM. We use Augmented Reality to show them what the 2D plans will look like in real life as well as show them what is possible for girls to create in STEM. This will hopefully encourage more girls to join in STEM. 

Health Award – Brigidine College Ninjas, Brigidine College (Qld)

The product that the Brigidine Code Ninjas are developing is an app which acts as an animal health care program, attacking the problem of poorly treated pets due to lack of knowledge from first time pet owners. The app will be both functional and aesthetically pleasing to suit the needs of anyone with domestic animals. The app’s functionality will contain information about your chosen animal including nutrition, required equipment, possible dangers, choosing the right animal for the user’s lifestyle and much more. The software will also contain a tracker to remind owners of when appointments are, along with links to veterinary clinics to book appointments. The app will also contain many fun features, such as a media page targeted towards people’s pets and children (whom usually take their parents phones and play) and fun/lovable characters that will play an important role in marketing. 

Peace Award – SafeSpace, Earnshaw State College (Qld)

Safe Space is an app designed to help teenagers deal with issues such as bullying, school stress, anxiety or even depression. The app includes: a chat page for people to share and help with other’s issues, a multiple-choice game that simulates real world issues for teens and a motivational quote page to keep the positivity flowing. Social media is a major aspect of teenage life and Safe Space is like another form of social media, except it is a supportive and positive chat forum that helps teenagers going through struggles. Teenagers are the future leaders of the world and Safe Space aims to support and help them to overcome any social issues that they may face  

Peace Award – Brigo Code Heroes, Brigidine College (Qld)

GoPizza (app) will help women and children feel safe, in a violent domestic situation. The app has multiple features that will give a variety of types of help that you can receive depending on the severity of your violent situation. GoPizza is disguised as a pizza delivery app, that will contact the police. The police will get an alert saying that the caller is coming from the app and will have a script which will guide them to helping the victim. The name GoPizza means that the pizza will GO to get help for you and adding PIZZA to the name helps disguise the app from the perpetrator. GoPizza will be available on all app stores. 

Poverty Award – Argyros, Ravenswood School for Girls (NSW)

Argyros is an app that helps people who need assistance and those who want to assist them. The main purpose of our app is to supply our target audience with the resources they need to survive. Our Argyros app suggests accommodation venues, job submissions, easy economical recipes, cost-effective shops for affordable good-quality clothing and food and more. The Greek word ‘anargyros’ refers to saints who do not expect payment for their services. Our app name ‘Argyros’ meaning silver has been chosen because we provide the “silver” people need (food, clothing, jobs, accommodation etc.) without asking for payment in return. 

 

New Zealand Secondary School Finalists

SussDAYnable, St. Hildas Collegiate, Dunedin

At present, many precious green spaces are being cleared for livestock and crops, however 30-50% of food produced worldwide will never be consumed. Our app aims to minimise food wastage in households. Users will plug in food they have at home which may otherwise go off, they will then be presented with recipes which include these food items thus saving them from the landfill. Society is increasingly becoming time-poor, an app with a variety of easy to follow recipes has never been more enticing for the consumer. We hope to bring environmentally conscious cooking into households around the world.

Villa Tech Girls, Villa Maria College, Christchurch

We noticed that the number of obese children has increased due to lack of exercise and healthy eating. We also noticed that car emissions are damaging the environment. Bi-schooling will make children more confident when riding a bike on the road as they can do it in a group as well as learn the road rules. This will help to reduce the affect that car emissions have on the environment as well as keeping kids healthy. They can find children who are biking to the same destination and join their group to bike together and find a safe route.

New Zealand Primary School Finalists

EEDAA, Frankley School, New Plymouth

Our app is about bullying. You will go onto our app and you will learn how to stop bullying from happening and how you can stop it from happening to you. You will also learn what to do when it happens. It will also have if you get angry or upset, an area to calm yourself down. Like Quotes and little games. Our app is for Kids aged 7-14 who are being bullied or are a bully and want to stop it. 

Creative Coderz, Frankley School, New Plymouth

Our app helps fish not get endangered because fishermen will not take more than they are allowed and will stick to the legal size. It is difficult to know the rules. Each region has different ones and there are many kinds of fish. It’s not easy to look up a website when you are fishing and your hands are sticky and dirty. We created a Fishing Siri to let fisherman get information hands free. By calling out the name of the fish, it gives back information about the size limit and daily catch limit for that fish. There are different buttons for each region of New Zealand. There is a camera allowing a fisherman/woman to take a photo of the fish.

Crazy Coderz, Frankley School, New Plymouth

Our app is called My Safety Toolkit. It provides safety information about the Mountain, the river and the bush. Bush, Mountain, River This app is to make sure that anyone who goes to these places is safe and knows what they will need. This is for tourists and people of New Zealand that need to learn how to be safe. The unique value is that it helps anyone who comes to New Zealand can explore our beautiful country. We will also be adding some video’s for those who don’t like reading and prefer watching 🙂 

NZ United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Awards

Education Award – Roelvie – St Hilda’s Collegiate School, Dunedin

Our app lartech, is an educational app that allows children who are in hard to reach areas or who just want a bit of extension to be able to access the resources that they need to be able to enhance their learning. When you go into the app you will be shown a page that says start lessons, profile and books recommendations. The first thing you will want to do is create a profile, then you will go into start lessons and select your age – you can select any age so if you want extension you can go the age above or if your struggling go to the age below. The last feature is the book recommendations page where you will go in and select the genre of book you want and it will take you to a page with book recommendations under that genre, you can also write and post your own recommendations. 

Environment Award – Blue Dreams – Frankley School, New Plymouth

This product helps people so they know how to look after their pets and how to look after animals it also tells you if you can go near them or not. Our app is for Family and Friends with pets or don’t know how to look after animals from other countries or people who want to get a pet but don’t know how to look after them. This app will also tell you what animals are dangerous and what animals aren’t and where you can find them and how close you can get up to an animal for instance a dog pretty close unless they are vicious. 

Health Award – Unicoder – Frankley School, New Plymouth

The app is about stress relief. The app helps people when they feel angry. We help them with kid friendly, relaxing music, and some mini-games, if that’s what helps them relax. The app is called Calm Down (targeted at 10 and up for both gender because of school tests, bullies, and work, so on and so forth.

Sat 1st Sept Melbourne @Xero 10:30-1pm

Sat 1st Sept Perth @ECU 1-3 pm

Wed 5th Sept Rockhampton @Emmaus College 3:30-6pm

Thurs 6th Sept Sunshine Coast @USC 3:30-6pm

Sun 9th Sept Brisbane @QUT Gardens Point 1-3pm

Wed 12th Sept Cairns @CQU 3:30-6pm

Thurs 13th Sept Gladstone@CQU 3:30-6pm

Fri 14th Sept Townsville @JCU 3:30-6pm

Sat 15th Sept Sydney @Accenture 10:30-1pm

PRESS RELEASE August 14, 2018

Australian and New Zealand schoolgirls as young as nine have pitched their apps to top executives and engineers in Silicon Valley as part of Brisbane founded Tech Girls are Superheroes. 

Five teams of school girls from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, NSW Central Coast, Adelaide and Invercargill (NZ) spent a week pitching to top global tech companies including eBay, Salesforce, IBM, Google, Accenture, Facebook, Nvidia, and Nutanix. 

The teams were invited to join the once in a lifetime trip based on their success in the 2017 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition, as either state or national winners. The winners, beat out 1000 other girls to take out the top prizes. 

The program, created by CEO Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen, is a 12-week STEM entrepreneurship program, teaching girls how to build apps, business plans, and pitches to solve a local community problem, while growing their technical and business skills. 

Dr. Beekhuyzen says the winners pitched their solutions to executives and engineers at the sprawling campuses of eBay, Google and Facebook in Silicon Valley, and the skyscrapers of Salesforce and IBM in San Francisco. 

“The girls showed real confidence in pitching their solutions, and the execs were amazed with what they have produced, and how well they pitch and respond to difficult questions,” Dr Beekhuyzen says. 

“They are extraordinary STEM ambassadors for Australia and New Zealand and certainly entrepreneurs who will change the world,” says Dr. Beekhuyzen. 

She says the girls also met and pitched their solutions to the CEO of Australian startup Skedulo in San Francisco, who explained his successful entrepreneurial startup journey, which led him to the USA. 

The Pacific Pines Primary team Sun Fun developed a sun safety app. They were funded by Technology One for the trip and have already partnered with the Queensland Cancer Council and LA-based Suncayr. 

“The girls are even forming partnerships to create their app to a wider audience and are really entrepreneurs in the making,” Dr. Beekhuyzen says.  

Pacific Pines Primary School teacher Kara Griggs says the experience of visiting some of the world’s biggest tech companies was very inspiring and what the girls have learned through the program has been extraordinary. 

“This truly was a trip of a lifetime, and it was invaluable not only for the girls but for us as coaches and teachers with us all getting so much out of it,” Ms. Griggs says. 

Chaperone Susanna Anderson from South Australian school St. Peters Girls School commented how Adelaide doesn’t have many local tech companies to expose girls to these kinds of opportunities.

“It was such a unique experience, and we are all inspired by tech and have had our eyes opened to the future,” Ms. Anderson says.

It’s the third year Dr. Beekhuyzen has led a trip to Silicon Valley with winners from the annual Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition. The 2018 competition has just concluded with more than 1000 girls vying for the top prize and a trip to Silicon Valley in 2019.

ENDS

For more information contact Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen phone 0405 272 068 or email info@techgirlsmovement.org

Nadine McGrath phone 0437 447 358 or email mailto:nadine@nadinemcgrath.com.au

We are now in Week 10 of the Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition with more than 1000 girls, and more than 200 teachers and 200 mentors participating, all with a chance to win a trip to Silicon Valley in 2019 for a week visiting the coolest tech companies on the planet like eBay, Google and Facebook!

Teams are in full entrepreneur mode, finalising their business plans, putting finishing touches on their app prototypes, and prepping their demo and pitch videos to “sell” their ideas. With only 3 weeks to go and on the last day of term, some of our teams met up with a bunch of really helpful people including our new partners at GWI!

Read what one of our dedicated coaches Nicola from Good Shepherd Lutheran College in Noosaville, Qld had to say – it looks like the 4-hour return trip was worth it! We love the snacks and the hugs parts 🙂

Note – you can ask us if you need help and we will connect you with companies 🙂

“This week has certainly been a highlight for our Tech Girls with the App Development excursion. On Wednesday, a group of very excited year 6 and 8 girls were taken in by a team of specialists at GWI Brisbane. They were shown around the new, innovative working environment and exposed to a range of roles women held within the firm. The girls were then spoilt with a beautiful morning tea before their TGAS mentors arrived to work alongside them until the late hours of the afternoon.

Many deep conversations about design, target audiences, minimum viable plans and programming were had. It was wonderful to watch the girls utilise boardroom whiteboards to map wireframes, engage in goal setting and task planning while working together collaboratively. The day wrapped up with group hugs, laughs and a sense of achievement.

A day well spent!”

On Saturday, Technology One HQ hosted some our participants in the 2018 Search for the Next Tech Girl Superhero competition.

More than a dozen teams, some from as far away as Noosa (2 hours), joined this fun afternoon of entrepreneurship, mentorship and coding. 

Fuelled by lots of snacks in the inspiring Village Green working space at T1, it was a pure joy for us to see so many of our tech girls, from 7-17 yo, working with their mentors in a safe, supportive environment, watched on by their parents and supportive teachers.

With only 4 weeks left in the competition, and teams now finalising their business plans, their app prototypes and their pitches, we simply can’t wait to see the innovations from our 200+ teams in this year’s competition.

Thanks to Tara and all of the mentors and volunteers at Technology One for hosting us for a fun and productive event! 

Register as a judge here

Judging will take place in the first 2 weeks of August!

MEDIA RELEASE: Thursday 26 April 2018

‘Tech Girls Are Superheroes’ by the Tech Girls Movement stands up for what’s right and what matters – helping young girls to reach their dreams

‘Tech Girls are Superheroes’ Founder and leader Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen today assured the community that she would continue to stand up for the next generation of young girls who were ready to join the tech girls movement – no matter what hurdles were thrown her way.

“Recently I’ve become aware of an initiative that is so similar to Tech Girls Are Superheroes that it’s making people look twice to see if it is the same,” Dr. Beekhuyzen said.

“I can assure my supporters and sponsors that this is not my work, and it misrepresents us and the good image of Tech Girls to benefit a profit-driven group.

“I am proud of the fact that we have helped hundreds of thousands of girls reach their dreams, and we have done it with the passion of young girls across the country, and the generous support of our community,” she said.

Jenine said while she supports programs that help get more girls involved in STEM, she was not about to let her good work and the work of her supporters be compromised or disrespected.

“We are a not-for-profit group that has worked hard to advocate for, and support thousands of young students to gain a passion for STEM and transform the industry’s future.

“It’s been my passion in life and I’m so proud of what I have been able to achieve working with so many amazing people who have shared my passion.

“Tech Girls Are Superheroes is not based on a desire to make money, rather it gives young girls who all deserve the opportunity to have a rewarding, interesting and challenging career, an opportunity to make a real difference in the world.

“It is time to rally our community, and I’ll continue to be a positive role model and stand up for what’s right,” she said.

Jenine encourages our Tech Girls Movement community to join the Real Tech Girls Are Superheroes campaign by:

• Sharing the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M-P4CXL49E&feature=youtu.be

• Visiting www.techgirlsmovement.org

• Donating at gofundme.com/techgirlsaresuperheroes

• Share the #realtechsuperhero

Media Contact

Emma Andrews

0411 339 911

Thanks to Technology One for sharing these great resources from our Superhero Daughter Day in Brisbane on the 19th of March

Hour of Code – for all ages

Introductory coding activity, where the girls coded a Star Wars themed game.  We placed the girls into pairs and guided them through the online tutorial.  We chose the Star Wars theme because all of the video tutors were women who had worked on the Star Wars movies in technical roles.

Magformers – focused on the 6-8 age group.

Ozobots Robotics workshop – for all ages

We used the Ozobot Bit robots, which allow programming by drawing colour-coded lines, or by using a Block-style programming language. Ozobots (purchase)

Virtual Worlds

We ran a number of Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality activities.  We found that the age restriction was really about the size of the headsets – younger girls’ heads were too small for the headset to fit securely.  The Jedi Challenge was also a bit scary for a couple of girls, as it’s a game where you fight robots.

Microsoft Hololens – for all ages – Pure AR activity, using the demo software that comes with HoloLens. 

Star Wars Jedi Challenge – for ages 9 and up

Augmented Reality activity where the player has a lightsaber and fights robots.

Star wars (purchase) – https://www.jbhifi.com.au/phones/all-phones/lenovo/lenovo-star-wars-jedi-challenges-ar-headset/502683/

Design a character – for all ages

This was a pure design activity, where girls got to design their own character/avatar and take home a printout. Adobe Illustrator: https://www.adobe.com/au/creativecloud.html

Hack the room – for all ages

This was an escape room activity, where the girls had to solve a number of codes and problems to save the Internet. URL: https://lockpaperscissors.co/hack-the-room