Coding Challenge 2021 | British Council

For all the schools that participated in the fourth cycle of training as part of the 21st Century Schools’programme, we are organizing the Coding Challenge 2021.

The Coding Challenge is open from April 26 and will close on May 24, 2021.

The COVID-19 crisis continued to cause education disruptions and teachers faced many changes and challenges, whether they practiced online or combined teaching. Although the temporary suspension continued to have substantial effects for all schools, for teachers and students, we are very proud of all the schools that were part of the trainings in these difficult times and those which will participate in this Challenge.

In accordance with government preventive measures and because we want all children and teachers to be safe and healthy, the Coding Challenge will be organized in online format.

The goal of our Challenge is to engage children from all over the country and inspire young people to solve everyday problems in their schools and communities through physical equipment programming. The Coding Challenge will use the micro: bit device to help children to design a project in response to the Sustainable Development Goals and to explore solutions to the problems they face in their daily lives. The challenge is organized in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of the Republic of Albania, and funded by the Government of the United Kingdom.

To apply, simply follow our instructions at the bottom of this page and take a look at the stages of the Coding Challenge.

Before you start the application process, you should first express your interest through the Survey available here. You will then be sent a link to your personalized online file where you can upload your application with all the required documents.

Eligibility

The 2021 Coding Challenge is open to all students in grades 6 to 9 from schools that meet the following criteria:

They have participated in the third cycle of our trainings on critical thinking and problem solving and have accepted micro:bit as part of the 21st Century Schools programme. The full list of eligible schools can be found here.
Schools that teachers have completed an online course on the use of micro:bit device.

The Coding Challenge will open on April 26, 2021, and the application process will close on May 24, 2021, the evaluation process will take place in three (3) stages:

Stage 1

In the first stage of the Challenge, all submitted applications will be evaluated according to the eligibility criteria. To qualify for project evaluation, projects must be submitted by teams, consisting of only 2 team members. At least one girl is encouraged to be part of each team. In addition, participants are invited to submit the following:

Contact details - as specified in the registration form
Competition information privacy form and signed consent: Annex 2
Introduction paper: Annex 3 - brief description of the project, the problems it addresses, how will it help students, the school or their communities? How the project relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (The project description must be submitted as a document in 'Word' format. Photographs of handwriting will be marked with minimum points.)
Uploading the .hex file. Applicants must submit the code. (Code must be submitted in a format that can be checked and tested for its functionality.)
Video of the functional project and its presentation (5 minutes).

All required documents are supposed to be uploaded to a folder. Please complete all documents in digital format. Any incomplete application will be removed at this stage. More information on how to choose a project and how to prepare a video can be found in the Schools Guide document.

Stage 2

Eligible applications will be evaluated according to the following evaluation criteria:

Project purpose and overall impact.
Originality and creativity in solving a problem
Functional design of the project
The technical complexity of the code

The ICT expert members of the jury will select up to 10 best projects that will be presented for stage 3 of the challenge - Coding Challenge, which depending on the situation will be organized in Tirana or via online format. Depending on the quality of the presentation there may be less than 10 teams invited to the final event in Tirana or online.

The list of selected projects that will be invited for the final event, will be published on May 24, 2021 on our website, and participants will be notified via email submitted in the application.

Stage 3

Teams with selected projects will participate in the final stage, the online challenge event. The live online event will be hosted through the Microsoft Teams app. We will enable a link and a trial session. All teams will have a chance to try out this Microsoft Teams app before the live event and address any issues or questions they may have.

In the online activity, each team will have 10 minutes to present their project and will be asked questions by the jury.
The presentation will be given in video format for up to 5 minutes. The videos will be recorded before the live activity, or the same videos presented in stage 1 can be used. Instructions on how to best record your video are included in the School Instructions.
The jury will have 5 minutes to ask questions about the project, and will evaluate the projects based on: general knowledge of the project content; the technical complexity of the code; and presentation skills.

‘Do your:bit’ challenge?

If you are participating in the Coding Challenge and you are interested in participating with the same 'do your:bit' Global Challenge project, then your Coding Challenge project should be in English and in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals.

'Do your:bit' is the Micro:bit Competition that challenges children and teenagers around the world to develop creativity and come up with solutions for Sustainable Development Goals

‘Do your:bit’ challenge is open and closes on June 4, 2021. For more information check out the Do Your Bit Challenge website.