App Idea Contest - Hawk Tank at Alta High School

Alta High students share some of their app ideas with us.  

When most people think of spring, images of May flowers and the sounds of birds chirping often come to mind.  At local high schools, however, spring means scholarship competition season!  At Alta High School students have a unique opportunity to earn up to $5000 in scholarship funds for pitching a Mobile App Idea in the "Hawk Tank", fashioned after the popular Shark Tank TV show.  On May 31st, at a school assembly, students with the top 10 app ideas were announced and called out of the audience to come on stage and present their app idea to a panel of esteemed judges in the "Hawk Tank."  In addition, all students in the assembly had the chance of winning prices sponsored by skull candy, Rockwell watches, Stance socks, the Utah Jazz, and other local companies. The assembly provided learning opportunities as CEO's spoke of their success experiences and the importance of innovation. 

The scholarship competition is sponsored by the IPOP foundation (In Pursuit of Perfection) and students at Alta High School are challenged by IPOP to develop their best idea for a new mobile App.  In addition to the scholarship, there is a possibility that the idea may be launched as a new business and the students whose ideas are chosen could be given the opportunity to play a part in the new company, becoming young entrepreneurs.

Students in many classes  learned about needed to think about creating a new app idea.  They began by brainstorming for mobile app ideas using the following steps: (1) listing the apps students like to use and the reasons why because features they may want to include could be features that already exist in apps they like. (2) listing apps they use that they wish could be improved and why - reinventing a poorly made app can lead to inspiration (3) choosing one app for improvement (#2) and doing market research by looking at what have other user posted in the review sections about needed improvement. (4) creating a simple definition sentence containing "difference"+
"purpose"+ "audience."  For example students could describe their app by stating, "My new app is an easy to use photo editing app for photographers."

Students are challenged by IPOP to submit the following:

• The name of the App
• Description of what the App does and how it functions
• Target Market: Who are the people that would want to use the App (for example, teens, children 8 to 12, men, women, adults, etc.)
• Market Need: What are the reasons someone would use this App (for example, what problem is it solving or what solution does it provide?)
• Competitive Differentiators: What competitive apps already exist today and what makes your App different or better than them
• Revenue Model: How would you charge for the app? Or how would you plan to make money with the app? (example, $1.99 to download, or free download with  in app purchases, or charge companies to advertise within your app, etc.)
• Sketches/Illustrations of App user screens
  
  

Students who are interested in App Development are encouraged to learn more about app development by attending the Canyons App Club which meets on Wednesday afternoons from 3:00 - 4:30PM.

Posted by Rachel Murphy

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