On Friday 16th June, a team of Year 9 students travelled to Hook to take part in the first Lord Wandsworth Open Coding Competition. Sponsored by Red Hat the aim of the project was to create an app to raise awareness of a student chosen charity, or assist the charity to perform its function. Thank you to Mrs Louise Adamson for the following report.
The team, ably led by Ben Thornber, decided to go for the second of these options, and Will Lovatt was able to persuade PIP, who support adults with learning disabilities to become their registered charity.
With Ben doing the coding, Ashley Williams the research and planning, Tom Craven and George Hinton the testing, the team put together both an app using the AppInventor software and a presentation for the judges covering all stages of the design, making, testing and evaluation process.
There were about 20 teams in the competition with spot prizes being awarded for students with good critical analysis skills whilst critiquing the other entries. Unfortunately, the team did not gain one of the top three places, including tickets to Thorpe Park, but a good day was had by all.
The competition was designed to enthuse and motivate young programmers and to imbue them with open computing principles. It has also opened their eyes to others less fortunate than themselves and, in discussing with PIP about their involvement in the project, Ben, Will, George, Ashley and Tom have committed to raising £100 each for the charity.