ROSS TOWNSHIP, OHIO—Some Ohio high school students are regional winners in a national contest after inventing a mobile device app that helps needy families find local food pantries (食品储藏室).

And someday the teens, who are students at Ross High School in Ross Township, may be selling the app to food pantries and food banks across America.

Their “Smart-Pantry” app has won the local U. S. Congressional App Challenge, which spans 47 states and territories, for the 8th Congressional District that includes their Butler County school system of Ross Schools.

Created as part of computer science class coordinated by Butler Tech career school system at the high school—three students, Jacob Kahmann, Gunner Nonnamber and Kyle Inderhees, recently were visited by Congressman Warren Davidson, R-Troy. Davidson issued a statement praising the teens for creating “this app to set the standard for efficient food collection and distribution.”

Butler Tech IT Instructor Tom O’Neill said the students’ app includes features that help users locate the nearest food pantry, improve food collection procedures and allows pantries to better monitor for fraud (欺骗) by users, and the national challenge provides a real-life learning opportunity for his students.

“The Congressional App Challenge provides my students with an opportunity to develop solutions to real-world problems. This app helps people locate food pantries and is designed to increase efficiency at food pantries and food banks,” said O’Neill.

The students are continuing to add features to the app and are working on turning it into a commercial product, said O’Neill, who in recent years helped numerous Ross High School teens win national honors for their computer-science-based inventions.

Brian Martin, principal of Ross High School, said it’s “extremely exciting” to watch students excel on the state, national and international stages.

“The staff and students in the Ross school district continue to amaze me with their future-thinking and innovation,” said Brian Martin. “Our students are not only thinking about carecrs, they are thinking about problems and issues they want to change, solve or improve. The app that was created is very unique and will make serving a population in need more efficient.”

The three inventors will be invited in the spring to a Congressional App Challenge hosted by Congress in the nation’s capital.

6 . Facebook Is a Big Waster

During the first decade of the 21st century, a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary—Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the Internet. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who have Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, I need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend!”

In spite of the benefit it does on common people, it is true that this social network is a big waster. There are about 350 million active users on this website and 67% of them are between the ages of 13-25. More than 35 million users update their status every day.     1    

The highest age group who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer. if they aren’t in school or when they aren’t asleep. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters unconsciously. The teenage life is one of the most important stages of life.     2     It is a distraction (分心，注意力分散) to their mind as well. Nowadays, when all their homework and research are on ICT (信息技术) they would easily switch to Facebook just to check if there was anything updated among their friends.

Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose “top friends”, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play childish games, invite friends to parties or events and a lot more. Generally, all these would just disturb (扰乱；妨碍) people into living life to the fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted, even grown-ups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook.     3     Technology might be taking over people’s life. Furthermore, people who use Facebook through their mobile phones are 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile phone users. This shows people using Facebook on their phone s as well as computers just can’t stand being away from the website. Facebook is like crack to some folk.

    4     This would make them think how life is like without saying what’s on their mind to all their friends on the Internet. A break would also make them more active, like socializing in person. This would finally help them focus better in school or in work. Although about 80% of people who take a break would come back to Facebook within days.

7 . As computers become all the more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly relying on computer keyboards to input Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes（笔画） of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.

Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more widespread among university students. Almost all their assignments and essays are typed on a computer.

All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer.

It’s faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that’s why computers are being applied more and more often to modern education. But when people are taking stock in computers increasingly, problems appear.

“When I’m writing with a pen, I find I often can’t remember how to write a character, though I feel I’m familiar with it.”

“I’m not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper.”

Many students don’t feel this is something to worry about. Now that it’s more convenient and efficient to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?

Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei, the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital said, “Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic（审美的） value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only keep their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer’s emotion. Through one’s handwriting, people can get to know one’s thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them.”

To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory（必修的） and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.

8 . Whether you’re brand new to hiking or looking to discover your next favorite trail (路线), hiking apps might be the tool to help you get there. Take a look at the list below and choose one that meets your needs.

1．G-GPS

G-GPS is one of the most popular navigation (导航) tools designed for remote mountainous areas. For some hikers, dependable maps and an easily searchable trail database are a must for a hiking app. G-GPS has both, which makes it a great option for beginners and expert hikers alike. It provides data like pace, distance and increased height. Moreover, it works fine when you’re offline and without cell service.

If you’re a fan of cold-temperature hiking, this app’s paid version ($40) has a winter map choice that displays features to help navigate in snowy weather.

2．P-Finder

Many hikers tend to have the experience of standing on a peak, looking at another mountain and wondering “What peak is that?”

If you’d like to avoid the problem, P-Finder might be the app for you. It takes the guesswork out of your exploration, thanks to its unique offering: a 360° view of mountain peaks and their names from your current location, requiring no Internet connection. Plus, all levels of hikers can use it, especially for finding new peaks to hike.

Added bonus: The app has some practical functions, which allow you to take some breathtaking shots and then automatically (自动地) label each peak with its correct name.

You can buy the app for $5 on its official website.

3．N-Land

N-Land Digital is a Canadian nonprofit that helps expert hikers to learn more about their local history and the Indigenous territories (土著领地).

By entering your address, a number of links will appear with the names of different Indigenous nations. Clicking on those links, you will be taken to a page specifically about that nation, language, or treaty, where you can view some sources, give feedback, and learn a little more. You can even do this if you’re offline. This app is an ongoing project, and maps of new territories are regularly added.

You’ll likely want to use this app together with another app such as A-Trails or V-Ranger, if you’re also seeking navigational help.

Since my mother received a mobile phone for her birthday this year, she has been addicted     1     the Internet, using different kinds of software application s on her mobile device. She spends a lot of time     2     (explore) websites and chat with other people online. She does most of the shopping online through an app. Instead of going to supermarkets, nowadays she just presses a button and then her orders     3     (deliver) the next day. She also downloads materials that can help my father with his work.