Danial Shakizada’s Innovative App Recognized as Best at the National “Zerde” Competition

Danial Shakizada, a student of the Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) in Kyzylorda, won first place at the national research and creative projects competition “Zerde.”

Danial competed in the Informatics, Robotics, and STEM Engineering category, where he presented his original development – a mobile learning application called CodeQuest. The app is designed to help school students develop basic programming skills through gamification elements, making the learning process engaging and interactive.

Together with his project supervisors, Raziya Baimurzayeva and Gulfairuz Bazarbayeva, Danial conducted a study on how gamification increases students’ interest in programming. The application features a diverse interface that includes learning materials, practical tasks and tests, a quest-based task map, and mini-games. The first users – Danial’s classmates – highly appreciated the app’s functionality and practical value.

Looking ahead, the young developer plans to increase the complexity of tasks, introduce competitive elements, and expand the application’s availability to iOS and Android platforms.

The “Zerde” competition brought together 347 participants from all regions of the country, with 272 research projects presented. The competition covered a wide range of disciplines, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, informatics, robotics, and STEM engineering, highlighting the high level of innovation and research skills among young scholars.