The HTHS virtual hackathon, hths.hacks(), is back online and ready for another year of coding awesomeness! We could focus and tailor the hackathon for beginner participants and get people excited to work on projects. Students are incredibly excited to learn computer science, and the ideas that they came up with were unique! Running the high school hackathon was more rewarding than the college one. Learn how your comment data is processed. I wish I vocalize to the students to continue working on their projects after the hackathon. On the one hand, hackathons provide amazing opportunities for high school students to learn computer science early. We aim to give students the opportunity to build solutions to real-world problems while meeting others and having fun. The ideas are great, but alas, nothing ever happens to them. AND you get really good at googling. The cycle of ideation, scaffolding, and presentation of hackathon projects can make it hard to learn the problem-solving skills needed to do successful personal projects and become a better coder. But high school hackathons run on limited time. But, I am even more amazed when I see a high school work on a project from beginning to end, all the way to publishing. How to get an software engineering internship (thought dump). I love the energy you get from working with other people over a short burst of time. I cant possibly imagine only having half a day to fully flesh out a project. Bringing high school students on campus without adult* supervision (technically, college students are adults) presents logistical challenges. Required fields are marked *. HTHS Hackathon hths.hacks() is Open for Registration. Dont get me wrong, Im a big fan of hackathons. Ive viewed countless GitHub profiles with dead hackathon projects: barely functional and nothing more than a React website with a few text fields and pages. When I see a high schoolers resume, and I notice they have a 1st place hackathon winner on it, I am impressed. Personal projects give you a taste of the real world: the struggles and the excitement of supporting real users. But like most things in life, hackathons should be done in moderation. This means students spend a nontrivial portion of their time ideating and cleaning up their project for presentation. Providing housing for an even longer hackathon would be almost impossible. Box 119, Lincroft, NJ 07738Phone:732-842-8444Fax: 732-219-9418Powered by Squarespace. However, just notonlyparticipate in hackathons. 765 Newman Springs Rd.,P.O. There are many mentors and online resources that high school students can ask for advice and guidance. On May 21-22, 2022, over 300 students will spend 24 hours brainstorming, implementing, and showcasing their projects. It gets you to problem solve, go from 0 to 100, and touch every part of the process. As an organizer, we want to maintain a level of fairness for prizes, which implies that projects shouldnt be started beforehand. I still think high school students should participate in hackathons. Sure there are prizes, free food, and great speakers. On the other hand, we want students to write code and build their projects beyond setting up a starter template. I understand that most people wont come up with great ideas at hackathons. If youre interested in participating, please register by May 13th here. It takes place completely online for high school students from across the world. What is hths.hacks()?hths.hacks() is a student-run, MLH sponsored hackathon hosted by the Robotics & Coding Club (RoCo) of High Technology High School. Its good to win a prize or two (I have never won any prizes, and Im kinda jealous of those who have). It allows you to make your own and other peoples lives better. As someone who organized HackMIT for multiple years, I wanted to talk about our high school hackathon Blueprint and the weird spot hackathons are for high school students. document.getElementById( "ak_js" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Are you currently a high school student interested in coding, science, technology or hacking? However, some students take it too far in the number of hackathons they participate in. Your email address will not be published. Were looking forward to seeing you there! Its great for beginners and veterans. :), Your email address will not be published. Weve seen people who even participated in Blueprint that went on to join our organizing team! However, high school hackathons can present an interesting challenge for hackathon organizers. I loved organizing Blueprint. College hackathons usually run from 24 to 36 hrs, but high school hackathons can really max out at 6-8 hours.