At Tesla STEM High School near Redmond, there is a culture of awareness when it comes to environmental issues.

But this is not the case at all schools. So to help raise awareness, seniors Abhinav Singh, Kush Khanolkar and Kon Aoki created a smart phone app to educate people about climate change.

The trio began developing the app, a game called Code Carbon, about a year ago.

Aoki described the game as a climate change simulation strategy game.

Players are tasked with creating a planet Earth that balances energy usage, the population, money and pollution. The information the three teens used for things such as the population growth rate is based on real-life models. In addition, all three have taken Advanced Placement environmental science and they were able to use what they learned in that class as well and apply it to their game.

Aoki said the game helps players understand that climate change is multifaceted and also involves aspects such as economics and politics.

Khanolkar added that players also learn about the short-term and long-term consequences for renewable and non-renewable energy. He said while their game may not create change, their hope is that it at least creates awareness about the issues surrounding climate change.

Code Carbon has been available to download for Android phones since this summer and the trio said they are currently working on getting it approved for iOS systems, or iPhones.

In the time that they have been working on the game, Singh, Khanolkar and Aoki entered it in two competitions: Imagine Tomorrow through Washington State University as well as the Washington Technology Association. They placed first in their categories for each competition.

With each competition, Aoki said they took the feedback they received from judges to improve the app before launching it in the app store.

The feedback also helped them improve Code Carbon for the Congressional App Challenge, the competition that prompted Singh, Khanolkar and Aoki to develop the game in the first place.

They entered Code Carbon in the competition at the beginning of November and learned they had won for Washington at the beginning of this month.

According to its website, the challenge is a competition aimed at encouraging high school students to learn how to code by creating their own applications. The challenge also highlights the value of computer science and STEM education and encourages students to engage in these fields.

“By encouraging and recognizing our nation’s young programming talent, Congress hopes to shine a light on the growing importance of these skills,” the website states.

Singh said winning the Congressional App Challenge is significant because it is a government-sponsored competition and their game is going in front of people who are making the decisions that will affect climate change.

Everything — from the graphics to the coding — was done by Singh, Khanolkar and Aoki. The only thing that is not theirs is the game’s music.

While they have done projects on a smaller scale, developing Code Carbon was the biggest thing any of them have done.

Aoki said it required their focus for a long time.

In addition, Khanolkar said they had to really manage their time as they had to balance working on the game with school work and other responsibilities. To help with the work flow over the course of the year, he said they broke things down into two-week increments, making sure each time they check in with each other that they had accomplished something.

“We had to keep ourselves accountable,” he said.