Submitted by Rachel Gardner on Mon, 14/02/2022 - 19:01
We are holding a Coding Competition for Secondary school students here on 22 March. Teams of pupils will be invited into the Department for a day to work on challenges, test their problem-solving skills, meet researchers – and discover more about what Computer Science can do.
The Competition is aimed at Year 8 pupils (i.e. children from 12 to 13 years old) and is open to local schools. It is being run in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Cambridge and supported by Raspberry Pi.
Entries are now open: schools have until 28 February to enter teams of four students for the competition. Those interested can download the Coding Competition Entry Form here.
No coding experience required
Students do not have to be expert coders to come and take part. "We will be catering for all abilities," says competition organiser Tim Jones, a Reader (Professor) here.
It doesn't matter if you have not done any coding before. We'll have people to help you and we aim to make the whole day fun and inclusive.
Tim Jones
"We expect that some of the pupils who enter will have done a bit of coding while others have done none at all. But that doesn't matter. We'll have people here meeting the students and helping them along with advice and tips, so the pupils won't be on their own. And we're aiming to make the day really inclusive and fun for everyone that joins us."
There is space for 20 teams, each of four students. In their teams, pupils will have to work together and combine their skills to solve a series of challenges. Teams can choose which challenges they to take on, based on their confidence and their experience.
They will be working in a room here in the William Gates Building and Raspberry Pi computers will be provided for them to use as they work to solve the challenges.
Solving problems
The teams will compete to write computer code solutions to a number of problems and will be judged on their ingenuity, speed and team-working. The event will be suitable for those with all levels of experience in the programming language Python, including none.
"Python is a very simple programming language," says Tim (pictured right). "Some Year 8’s will already have some experience coding in Python while others won't, though they might have used another programming language called Scratch. But Python is very easy to get up and running with."
He adds: "The coding is only one part of the competition. What the teams will really be doing is problem-solving: thinking about how best to solve the challenge and what steps they need to take to do that. The coding will then come in at the end."
Computer science is really exciting because of the potential for new ideas to come along and change things almost overnight. This competition is a chance for pupils to see the breadth of the subject.
Tim Jones
The competition is taking place for the first time this year. It is deliberately targeting children in Year 8 as they will already have spent some time studying Computer Science at school, but won't yet have finalised their GCSE subject choices.
Tim Jones adds: "Computer science is a really exciting subject because of the potential for new ideas to come along and change things almost overnight. This competition is a chance for pupils to see the breadth of the subject – and we hope to spark their interest in it before they get to the point of making subject choices that will send them in one direction or another."
Certificates and a trophy
All entrants will receive a certificate of participation. And there is a trophy for the winning team – the Francis Hookham Trophy.
"He was the longest-serving member of the Rotary Club of Cambridge," the Club's website explains, "and had a lifelong interest in technology, especially computers. The trophy is named in his memory."
