HK Children built Burger Ordering App for local restaurant

This is a guest blog by MIT Master Trainer Tommie Lo.

It’s 11:30 in the morning, 45 minutes away to your lunch break. Having been in a rush and skipped breakfast, you are suffering from the complaint of your rumbling stomach. Here, you pick up a tablet, access an app and start ordering your customized burger.

You choose from a selection of buns, vegetables, patties to a list of chef’s secret sauce. When you are ready, a simulated mouthwatering burger appears in front of you. Then you place your order and grab your burger out of your office right at 12:15.

This is what our coders aged 9-12 built during the Preface Hackathon last Sunday - a "Create Your Own Burger&quot. custom app for Hong Kong burger chain Texas Burger, which was structured with Variables and ListPicker components, and further fine-tuned with Procedure components and colour coding. As aforementioned, the app provides enhanced visualization for customers, and also serves as a confirmation tool for store owners to minimize wrong orders.

All kids are born with limitless creativity. Give them a platform to channel their abilities, and they may end up with creations with larger impacts than any adult could fathom. There is an ever growing influence of coding knowledge in the real world, and hence, newer platforms for kids’ creativity are needed to reflect this change. The App Inventor blocks that our coders have thoroughly explored may be interpreted as the next "Lego".

This was well reflected in our Hackathon. Though many kids at the event were young, and had little experience with coding, they exhibited a passion and excitement for coding that stunned their own parents. They were fully engaged throughout, and were buzzing to contribute in any way they could. This bodes well with our role as Preface Programmers - to guide young coders in not only learning, but applying coding knowledge practically too. We are extremely proud of every kid for the work they’ve put in, and would also like to take this opportunity to thank Texas Burger for being a reliable partner all through this event!