15-year-old creates app to address mental health in the Black community
Ifeoluwa Joseph's app, Mental Health for Social Justice, offers Black youth a platform to journal, chat with AI and connect with mental health professionals.
Digital Literacy Meets Student Well-Being — Transforming Education for Today's World
CRITmetic includes a platform and VR experiences that merge critical digital literacy and psychoeducation into a single, research-driven learning experience.
Our Approach
The Spiral of Empowerment, with our students at the center.
01 · Access
The ability to find and use media and technological tools skillfully.
02 · Analyze
The ability to comprehend messages and think critically, to analyze messages and determine their quality, legitimacy, and point of view.
03 · Counter
Consciously challenging harmful messages by placing them in historical context and responding with evidence, critical thinking, and affirming narratives that recognize the resilience, excellence, and humanity of marginalized communities.
04 · Cope
Intentionally applying cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage stress, adapt to challenges, and restore the capacity to move forward.
05 · Create
To compose and generate liberatory content for individuals and communities.
06 · Reflect
Use ethical principles and engage in socially responsible communication and behavior consistent with one's own identity and lived experience.
07 · Act
Channel creative gifts and ingenuity toward sharing knowledge and solving problems, starting in students' own communities and extending, potentially, to a national and global scale.
Features
InnovAItion: Young Trailblazers Revolutionizing Technology
Examples of apps built by students who are like our users.
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Los Angeles teen creates an app on immigrant rights
Julian Miramontes, a 14-year-old 8th grader at El Sereno Middle School in El Sereno, CA created the Know Your Rights app with the help of his STEM teacher at school. The app outlines key information people should know, then reinforces understanding by quizzing the users.
CBS News Maryland — Pikesville Teen Creates "ThinkBlack" To Promote Black-Owned Businesses
Fifteen-year-old Kelsey Parker built ThinkBlack, a free online directory and app where Black-owned businesses across the country can list and promote themselves, after seeing how many closed during the pandemic.
How This 17-Year-Old Quietly Built a Simple $1.12M/Month AI App
Zach Yadegari co-founded Cal AI, a calorie-tracking app that reads a photo of your food and logs it automatically, growing it into a fast-scaling AI business while still a teenager.
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Inside the app
See the platform the way students will.
01 · Home base
critmetic.app / dashboard
Time to grow, Imani!
Modules
See all1
Introduction to Fundamental Concepts of Mathematic
4 lessons
2 assignments
Completed
2
Designing AI-Powered Apps for Impact - Week 1
5 lessons
3 assignments
In progress
3
African Diaspora Art Movements
4 lessons
2 assignments
Not started
4
Voices of Change: Literature and Social Justice
6 lessons
3 assignments
Not started
Assignments
See allYou have no open assignments
Announcements
Welcome to Module 2!
Excited to kick off our new module on Designing AI-Powered Apps! This week we'll start shaping app ideas…
2/5
Feed
Nia Thompson2h
Studying typography through the lens of cultural identity — how letterforms carry history and belonging.
♡ 14↻ 2💬 3
Amara Okafor4h
This article on culturally responsive math pedagogy is a must-read. Sharing for everyone in Module 2!
♡ 12↻ 2💬 3
portal / dashboard · live
A home for every student's running work.
One screen with their modules, today's announcements, and where they left off. Built so an 8th – 10th grader can find their next lesson without asking.
02 · Inside a lesson
critmetic.app / modules / designing-ai-apps
← Back
2Designing AI-Powered Apps for Impact - Week 1
Designing AI-Powered Apps for Impact teaches students how to design AI-driven digital applications that solve real-world problems they care about. Through a blend of app design fundamentals and AI concepts, students learn to create human-centered solutions that thoughtfully balance effectiveness with ethics.
Pre-assessmentLessonsAssignmentsPost-assessment
Pre-assessment
The following questions help us to know your prior knowledge on the main topics discussed in this module. This is NOT a test. You will not be graded. Please complete the questions to the best of your ability.
1When selecting typography for an app, which factors should you consider? (Select all that apply)
Readability for typical users
Whether the font matches the app's personality
Using as many different fonts as possible
Accessibility for users with visual impairments
Font range (special characters available)
Always using the most decorative font available
lesson / view · live
Lessons that hold together — not a folder of links.
Slides, videos, readings, and resources live in one structured view, with two capstone projects students work on throughout the semester. Teachers grade against rubrics built into the lesson.
03 · Wellness, private
critmetic.app / wellness
This week's check-ins
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Today
How are you feeling?
😔🙂😌😊✨
Resource
Imani's Yoga Flow
15 min · Guided
wellness / check-in · private
Check-ins that aren't surveillance.
Students log how they're doing in a safe space monitored by a licensed clinical psychologist and a licensed clinical social worker. Aggregated trends help schools spot what's working without naming names.
critmetic.app / dashboard
Time to grow, Imani!
Modules
See all1
Introduction to Fundamental Concepts of Mathematic
4 lessons
2 assignments
Completed
2
Designing AI-Powered Apps for Impact - Week 1
5 lessons
3 assignments
In progress
3
African Diaspora Art Movements
4 lessons
2 assignments
Not started
4
Voices of Change: Literature and Social Justice
6 lessons
3 assignments
Not started
Assignments
See allYou have no open assignments
Announcements
Welcome to Module 2!
Excited to kick off our new module on Designing AI-Powered Apps! This week we'll start shaping app ideas…
2/5
Feed
Nia Thompson2h
Studying typography through the lens of cultural identity — how letterforms carry history and belonging.
♡ 14↻ 2💬 3
Amara Okafor4h
This article on culturally responsive math pedagogy is a must-read. Sharing for everyone in Module 2!
♡ 12↻ 2💬 3
portal / dashboard · live
Research-grounded
20yrs
of underlying research
01 · Evidence
Two decades of studying online youth.
CRITmetic translates two decades of peer-reviewed scholarship on adolescent online experiences — racial discrimination, algorithmic bias, the mental-health cost of disinformation — into something kids will actually open on a Tuesday.
02 · Evidence
Thousands of students. Real online digital literacy tasks.
Field studies across more than 4,000 students informed us which critical digital and media literacy skills young people are more likely to reach mastery on and which ones they need support with.
03 · Evidence
Led by Dr. Brendesha Tynes.
Founder and Principal Investigator Dr. Brendesha Tynes has spent her career documenting how the internet shapes adolescent identity — and what it costs them. CRITmetic is the outcome of working with those adolesecents to co-create a platform by and for them.
Dr. Brendesha Tynes
Founder & Principal Investigator
Get started·Spring 2026 cohort
Try CRITmetic with your district this spring.
Schedule a 30-minute demo with our team. We'll walk you through the curriculum, the platform, and what a school-wide rollout looks like — no slide deck, just the product.