Become an App Inventor: The Official Guide from MIT App Inventor

With a foreword by Gitanjali Rao, Time Magazine’s inaugural Kid of the Year, this engaging guide from MITeen Press teaches anyone to design and publish their own apps—no experience necessary!—and introduces young app creators from around the world.

Have you ever wanted to build your own mobile apps? App Inventor, a free and revolutionary online program from MIT, lets you do just that. With the help of this companion guide chock-full of colorful graphics and easy-to-follow instructions, readers can learn how to create six different apps, including a working piano, a maze game, and even their own chat app to communicate with friends—then use what they’ve learned to build apps of their own imagination. User-friendly code blocks that snap together allow even beginners to quickly create working apps. Readers will also learn about young inventors already using their own apps to make a difference in their communities, such as the girls from Moldova whose app helps alert residents when local well water is contaminated. Or the boys from Malden, Massachusetts, whose app lets users geotag potholes to alert city hall when repairs are needed. With this inspiring guide, curious young dreamers can become real inventors with real-world impact.

Karen Lang worked for several years as a software engineer before deciding education was her true calling. She spent twenty years teaching computer science, and has worked as education manager for MIT App Inventor since 2015, developing tutorials and curriculum and doing outreach to teachers and students. For five years, she also served on the board of directors for the Computer Science Teachers Association.

Selim Tezel joined the App Inventor team in 2018 as a curriculum developer. A former K–12 mathematics teacher with over twenty years of international teaching experience, he enjoys exploring intersections of technology and playful constructionist pedagogies in the classroom. Recently he worked as a curriculum designer at the Education Development Center, which aims to make computer science accessible and enjoyable for a diverse population of students.

MIT App Inventor, which boasts approximately a million users a month, is a major research project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.