Ease. Though maybe not the first word that comes to mind when one thinks about navigating the high school, the App Development Club seeks to help simplify the experience of high school students while improving their coding skills.

After creating the famous “BHS Schedule Tracker App,” senior Yuen Ler Chow realized that with the help of other students, he could make an even greater difference within our school. This led him to start the App Development Club, which is devoted to creating apps that can be used by students at the high school.

The club has also been able to build a strong sense of community through the shared passion for coding amongst members. According to Chow, the size of the club, which is about ten people, is the ideal size for app development.

“Once you have too many people then you lose track of what projects are happening. We are able to have a good team working on one app right now,” Chow said.

The club meets three evenings a week for an hour each, but members are also expected to spend time working on projects outside of the allotted meetings.

As the only club at the high school that teaches coding, having students with varied coding experience has allowed for an immense amount of individual progress. Chow believes that app development is a great way to learn coding.

“We have people who have been coding for multiple years and some who are new, or just learning to code. These are people who do not know how to code and they are using app development as a way to learn coding, which is pretty fun because you actually work on a real project rather than trivial small coding projects,” Chow said.

Michael Ye, a sophomore and member of the club, said that though he was reluctant to join at first, he has been able to improve his coding skills.

“My biggest takeaway has been that even if you’re scared in the start just hang on, because then you’ll come out a lot better at what you’re doing,” Ye said.

Freshman and club member Allen Yu also believes that this opportunity to engage in app developing has helped him with coding as well as in other areas.

“It’s helping me improve in my particular [coding] language, but also logic and reasoning,” Yu said.

The App Development club has been working tirelessly this year to introduce a newer, more advanced model of the original schedule tracker.

While providing a sleeker schedule tracking system, the new app will also automatically create group chats for each class, give students the ability to post about club events or shows going on in the high school, and will utilize the “make a friend” feature.

This feature allows students to match with others in the high school and once friended, the app will send the students an automatic Zoom link for them to use if they would like to chat. Chow hopes to release the app by the end of February, specifically in the next two weeks.

According to Yu, their marker of success will be making things easier for students.

Not only do they hope to build community and increase ease amongst all students at the high school through features of their apps, they have also implemented a strong focus on building community within the club through their work. For Yu, this club has helped him find a place in the high school.

“I feel kind of lost, especially in remote learning. It’s hard to connect with people. Being in that first meeting, they [club members] were very welcoming,” Yu said. “They really help people who are new to programming and actually explain and help them develop the skills to actually apply them.”