The Beautiful Mind – Hackathon - 29th May 2022

Tech Innovation Day: Inspiring Tomorrow's Innovators with Creativity and Teamwork

Our highly skilled IT teacher Mr Petkar teamed up with Mr Murtaza - a leading apple specialist and master of robotics engineer from JTRS. The school has acquired the equipment which can be used again to enhance the IT curriculum including micro bits, the world’s smallest computer allowing multiple inputs, outputs and sensors. Each competitor was placed in teams of four and worked collaboratively to solve problems and come up with solutions. Each team was made up of students from different year groups to challenge them collaboratively but they all showed from the outset they clearly shared the same passion and enthusiasm for technology.

The day started with a technology-based Kahoot which helped focus each team on the tasks ahead. To help the students get used to the equipment they were challenged to code and programme the micro bit to do specific tasks such as tell the temperature, compass directions, play music or create pictures or shapes.

After the break was the start of the Hackathon and the one-hour count-down clock began. The task was to design, code, create and present a new innovative product to the market. From the start of the competition, there was a sense of urgency due to the time limit of the competition but the students worked productively with each member of the team taking responsibility for different aspects of their creation. They demonstrated great teamwork and resilience working under pressure, and maintaining focus throughout. Not only did they have to build and code a prototype they also had to plan a presentation to pitch in front of the judges and parents at the end of the day.

Once the time was up and all teams had finished the parents were invited in to help judge the quality of their pitch and decide the overall winners. The criteria they were using to judge was broken down into different 5 categories including content, delivery, user interface, user experience, and coding concepts. The parents were extremely impressed at what they created in such a short time and it was lovely for the students to share their product creations and to hear all the positive comments.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the fabulous event. Everyone involved received a certificate and it was a very difficult decision to choose the winners as they were all so good. The winning team will be congratulated and announced in the next Secondary assembly on Wednesday. It was a great day and experience which we hope will inspire and enhance their technological mastery further.