MAD-news for November: Your students in front of a global audience

November 17, 2025

Our student showcase is quickly approaching and we’re still looking for student presenters to share their apps. If you have a student who is interested in showcasing their work, please complete the registration form below. The MAD-learn Student Showcase is Dec. 12th from 2-3PM Eastern (and a great finale to #CSEdweek!). We can’t wait to hear from your students and find every reason to celebrate you and them. 

Check out last Year’s Student Showcase (so you can see the opportunity for your students). 

This month kicked off with National STEM Day (Nov. 8), a great reminder of how powerful student creativity becomes when STEM concepts meet real-world problem solving. We loved seeing classrooms use app development to explore engineering, design, and innovation in meaningful ways.
And now we’re looking ahead to CSEdWeek in early December! If you’re planning activities, here are a few simple ways to bring CS to life with MAD-learn:

  • Hour of Code × App Ideation: Have students brainstorm app ideas that solve a problem in their school or community.
  • Design Thinking Sprint: Let students create wireframes or app screens to practice user-centered design.
  • Showcase Student Creativity: Encourage students to publish or present their apps as part of a CSed Week celebration.
  • App Makeover Challenge: Have students improve an existing app. Think: fixing UI/UX issues, adding features, or rethinking a layout.

With MAD-learn, every student can participate in CSedWeek, whether they’re coding, designing, analyzing problems, or building their first mobile app.

We’re excited to introduce AI in Design, a powerful new tool inside the Design module of the MAD-learn platform that helps students think more like real designers. With this feature, learners can now get instant, constructive feedback on their app designs, as well as generate fresh design ideas, powered by responsible AI.
With AI in Design, students can:

  • Upload an app screen and receive feedback to improve clarity, usability, or visual appeal
  • Generate design ideas or enhancements to spark creativity
  • View prompt history to track their design process
  • Use AI safely, thanks to built-in moderation and class-level controls for teachers

To try it out, simply open any app in the Design module and click AI Assist at the bottom of your screen.
This feature is the latest step in helping students explore real-world design thinking, giving them tools professionals use to create thoughtful, user-centered apps. We can’t wait to see how your students bring their ideas to life!

This month we met so many educators who are just getting started with MAD-learn, and we couldn’t be more excited for them. That “lightbulb moment”, when app development suddenly becomes real, tangible, and full of possibility, never gets old.

Alongside our professional development sessions for new MAD-learn teachers in The School District of Palm Beach County, DeKalb County School District, Cherokee County School District, Lindenhurst Union Free School District and Kapolei HS in Hawaii, we also connected with incredible educators and leaders at SOTF, GEAR UP West, and GaETC. From conference conversations to hands-on workshops, we loved hearing how schools plan to bring more creativity, STEM, and student voice into their classrooms.

We can’t wait to support all the new ideas sparked this month!

As we get close to closing out the semester and head into the holiday season, we’re spotlighting someone whose impact reaches far beyond a single classroom. Cathy Cardenas, UVU’s GEAR UP Utah Assistant Director, continues to inspire students to think creatively, take risks, and bring thoughtful ideas to life through app development.

After fully retiring, Cathy learned about the UVU GEAR UP program and was so moved by its mission that she came out of retirement to help lead it. What began with just a handful of students has now grown into a thriving program serving nearly 40 schools. Her unwavering belief in student potential shines through everything she does, from empowering new learners to championing opportunities that help students explore STEM and design thinking in meaningful ways.Cathy’s commitment, heart, and leadership embody the spirit of MAD-learn, and we’re thrilled to celebrate her this month.

PS: Cathy brought MAD-learn in to conduct App Camps at several of her GEAR UP sites and our team is in love with those amazing students (and Utah!) 

… hearing directly from these Fayette County students (which also happens to be our new headquarters!) and how empowered they are by being able to successfully turn their ideas into real products.