MEETEETSE – The Meeteetse Middle School team of Cooper Randol, Delanie Salzman, Kalvin Erickson, Kiana Horsen, Dillon McClean, Molly Fremlin and Mickle Ogden, were surprised Wednesday morning to learn that they had won Best in Nation in the Verizon Innovative Learning app challenge, for their app Farmbook. The surprise came during a celebration disguised as a typical assembly attended by the entire school and parents.

The Meeteetse Middle School team is one of four middle schools in the country to earn this esteemed award. Verizon District Manager Greg Ellsworth stated that only four middle school teams in the nation received this award out of over 1,800 entries. "When you look at it, that doesn't just happen, you worked hard," he added.

Winning Best in Nation is a great honor for the Meeteetse Middle School team, their teachers and parents. "I was kind of in shock at first but now I'm pretty happy and excited," Salzman stated.

"I'm so excited. There are so many great things that happen here every day in Meeteetse, so it's really fun to bring just one piece of that to the national spotlight and to really let our kids get recognized for the things that we see them do every single day. Being able to compete and be successful in a national competition, I think that it really speaks volumes to the amazing teachers that we have and the families, the students everything that really brings Meeteetse into such a wonderful community and very evident of the high expectations. Our vision talks about us setting the standard and I think that that's what we are always striving to do, set the standard of what education should be and pushing the limits to make our kids be contenders in a national competition," Meeteetse School Principal Shane Ogden said.

Ellsworth stated during the celebration, "We just want to say congratulations, it's an honor to be here and be able to be part of something like this and see what science, technology, engineering and mathematics, those STEM courses, how they can impact your future and how you are going to use that to impact other people's lives. I'm just really proud and honored to be here today. Thank you to the advisors, Mr. (Clint) Elliott [Meeteetse Middle School technology teacher and technology director] and Mr. (Mike) Power [Meeteetse School science teacher], your dedication to the students, in helping them get there and your hard work."

The app challenge is a nationwide contest in which middle school and high school students are challenged to develop concepts for mobile apps that solve a problem in their community. It's a unique hands-on activity that teaches collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving and entrepreneurship, as well as STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills and coding. It builds on students' excitement about technology and aims to equip them with skills they need to succeed in the jobs of the future.

"Farmbook connects people who have produce or goods that they need to sell, whether that's an individual household that has a bumper crop of zucchini and tomatoes or whether it's a commercial grower to people who want to purchase locally grown produce or goods," Ogden stated. It will use GPS and map tracking information that will show not only where the nearest sellers, producers and consumers are but it will also let users rank it by who's charging the most for tomatoes in the area and who's charging the least and uploading pictures to show what they have to offer, he added.

Verizon Senior Consultant West Area Public Relations Meagan Dorsch stated that the team's idea was an amazing idea and that it was great that the students thought outside the box to come up with an idea that the community needed as the nearest grocery store is 30 miles away.

Creating the app took a lot of hard work from the students and teachers and cooperation from the parents. Meeteetse Middle School Technology teacher and technology director Clint Elliott stated that the team began working on the app in the beginning of November and that they were panicked because they were late starting, so the team worked on the app during their back-to-back science and technology classes and off school hours.

Fremlin stated, "We went in early (school) and stayed late and worked on it during the weekends."

Salzman added, "We tried to do as many Saturdays and Sundays as we could."

The team won $20,000 for their school, an Android mobile tablet for each team member, an all-expense-paid trip to the 2017 National TSA (Technology Student Association) in June, in Orlando, Florida to present their app to the TSA for each team member, and having their idea become a real app. "They came up with an idea that won the award, it's time to put that idea into a reality. In a little while they are going to have an MIT coach come out to Meeteetse and actually help them take that idea and develop their app and get it out on the Google Play Store," Ellsworth said.

Ogden had an additional surprise for the team. "Next week these kiddos will travel down on Monday evening and go spend the night in Cheyenne. Then the following morning they will be introduced to both the House and the Senate of the state of Wyoming. There they will be recognized for the work that they have done and for this accomplishment, they will also be a great symbol to our representatives and our senators on the great education that happens here in Wyoming."