Wisconsin Native Landscaping Helper wins Rep. Glenn Grothman’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Sixth District.
Rep. Glenn Grothman has named Clayton Walters of Neenah High School as the winner of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Wisconsin’s Sixth District. Their app, Wisconsin Native Landscaping Helper, helps users examine their garden for invasive and native plants and plan future native garden layouts.
When asked what inspired the creation of Wisconsin Native Landscaping Helper, Clayton Walters said, “I have been consuming a lot of media (books and videos) that cover native plants of Wisconsin and how they affect the environment, along with invasives. Some of the media had great ideas (in my opinion) about converting monocultural and almost ecologically useless grass lawn into natives, which helps plenty of species populations, such as birds and bugs. But, in suburbia, gardens tend to be non-natives and sometimes even invasives, as shown by butterfly bush, hostas, and others. As a result, I got the idea to make an app that would make it easier to convert to a native garden, notifying people what definitely not to plant (invasives) and what to plant instead (natives), what to consider, etc.”
The 2025 Congressional App Challenge marked another record-setting year for the program. A total of 394 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives hosted App Challenges in their congressional districts, the highest level of participation in the program’s history. More than 13,800 students from across the country participated, submitting over 4,600 original apps focused on real-world challenges ranging from health and accessibility to education, sustainability, and civic engagement.
The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives that encourages middle school and high school students to learn to code, explore computer science, and build practical technology solutions for their communities. Each participating Member of Congress selects a winning app from their district, and winning teams are invited to showcase their projects to Members of Congress, staff, and industry leaders at the annual #HouseOfCode celebration on Capitol Hill.
The Challenge is proudly bipartisan and reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to STEM education and preparing the next generation of American innovators for the future workforce. The program is a public-private partnership made possible through funding from the Broadcom Foundation, AWS, Infosys Foundation USA, theCoderSchool, Apple, and others.
The 2026 Congressional App Challenge will launch in May, and eligible students can pre-register for the competition now.