AI for Youth AcademyFuture Scholars Research Initiative
Back to Year 2
Year 2

Build Apps with Coding Agents

Summer 2026

Goal

Make a coding agent your everyday build partner, develop real applications with it, and learn to work as a team from the first commit to a live site.

Course focus

Key themes

  • Coding agent setup: install Claude Code or Codex, describe what you want clearly, and review what it writes
  • App development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python, from a static page to an interactive app with real data
  • Team collaboration: Git and GitHub with branches, pull requests, and code review
  • Shipping: deploy to a live URL and improve it from feedback

Hands-on moments

  • Set up a coding agent and build your first page with it.
  • Turn a real dataset, the Town of Cary budget, into an interactive web app.
  • Work in a shared GitHub repository: branches, pull requests, and reviewing each other's changes.

Outcomes

  • Direct a coding agent with clear, testable instructions and check its work.
  • Build and deploy a web application that other people can use.
  • Collaborate in a team with Git without stepping on each other's work.

Projects

Subject to change based on cohort pace and feedback.

  1. P01

    My Monster

    Use a coding agent (Claude Code or Codex) to design your own monster and publish it as a web page on project.foryouth.net — then learn GitHub to save and share your work.

    Skills
    • Coding agents
    • GitHub
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • SVG
    • GSAP
    • Skills
    View details
  2. P02

    Cary Budget Explorer

    Work as a team to turn the Town of Cary's adopted FY2024–FY2026 budgets into interactive visualizations: total spending, where every dollar goes, category changes year over year, and a General Fund breakdown. Built with a coding agent, shipped through GitHub.

    Skills
    • Public data
    • Data visualization
    • Next.js
    • Python
    Visit project