Bring your pupils’ computing skills to life by hosting your own hackathon

Have you ever considered how you can use and adapt Oak’s free teaching resources to inspire your pupils - in the classroom, and beyond? We love hearing about the different ways you have customised our resources and used them to spark creativity.

A hackathon example

One excellent example is how Ark Bolingbroke Academy in London used Oak’s KS3 computing resources and KS4 computing resources to set up a hackathon. A hackathon is a timed event where participants, often working in teams, collaborate to design and build a project, typically involving coding. It’s a brilliant platform for pupils to tackle real-world problems, sharpen their programming skills, and work together creatively.

Here’s what they did:

The brief

In October, Ark Bolingbroke Academy welcomed pupils from across the Ark network for ArkHack 2024. This wasn’t their first hackathon, it was their fourth, and it centred on a timely and critical theme: climate change. The challenge? Create an app that would help their school make smarter, greener decisions to combat the climate crisis.

The task

Teams, organised by the school, were tasked with developing an app to educate their school community about environmental issues and promote sustainable choices.

The coding challenges were completed using the Raspberry Pi code editor, a free, accessible platform perfect for Python programming.

The apps were judged on coding quality, with specific criteria including:

• Sequence: The logical flow of instructions.
• Selection: Use of decision-making structures like if-statements.
• Iteration: Loops to repeat actions efficiently.
• Subroutines: Functions or procedures to organise code.
• File/read writing: Handling data input and output.

These criteria ensured pupils applied a broad range of programming concepts, making the challenge both educational and rigorous.

The pitch

Each team prepared a 3-minute pitch to present their app, covering:

• The problem they wanted to solve and why
• Brainstorming and ideas
• Design of their application, using tools like Appshed and flowcharts to plan their app’s structure.
• What they need to do next

This process blended creativity, planning, and technical skill, giving pupils a taste of real-world app development.

The results

After a day of coding and collaboration, the winners were announced:

1. Isaac Newton Academy

2. Ark Globe

3. Bolingbroke Academy

Why host a hackathon?

Hosting a hackathon is a brilliant way to bring computing skills into focus and inspire your pupils. Here’s why your school should consider hosting one:

• Sparks engagement: The fast-paced, collaborative nature of a hackathon makes learning fun and memorable.
• Real-world application: Pupils see how computing skills can solve pressing problems, like climate change.
• Boosts creativity: It’s a sandbox for innovative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking.
• Builds teamwork: Working in groups hones communication and collaboration skills.
• Inspires pupils to learn how to code: Learning to code empowers young people to use coding to problem-solve, express themselves creatively, and to build businesses that could change the world.¹ Even in a world where AI can generate code, we need skilled programmers. Read more in Rapsberry Pi Foundation’s position paper.

How could your school use Oak’s resources?

Ark Bolingbroke Academy’s ArkHack 2024 is just one example of how you can use, adapt and personalise Oak’s teaching resources to make a real impact in your classroom. Our resources are the starting point, and we can’t wait to hear how you’ll use them.