2010 Programming Challenge for Girls

14 Dec 2010 - 10:11:22 in Event
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At Victoria University on the 24th of November, 52 year 10 girls from 9 Wellington high schools took part in the 2010 Programming Challenge for Girls. This is an annual event held in various locations throughout New Zealand and around the world, and is designed to introduce year10 girls to computer programming. Dr Alex Potanin coordinated the Victoria University event.

The girls had a 1hour practice session prior to the 2.5 hour programming competition, which used "Alice," an educational software program for teaching students 3D animation. Dr Peter Andreae ran additional activities and games designed to introduce computer science concepts such as error detection and correction, public key cryptography, and algorithm complexity. A 2.5 hour workshop was run for teachers on teaching and assessing the new NCEA level 1 programming achievement standards.

Stu Sharpe and Julianne Lim from Sidhe Interactive helped to judge the competition. The company also provided the prizes, which included a "Shatter" computer game, the soundtrack for this game on CD, and T-shirts.

Gold medals were awarded to:
  • Bonnie Liao and Poonam Patel, Wellington East Girls College
  • Francina West and Claudia Devlin, Onslow College
  • Sonja Bimler, Wellington East Girls College and Maia Holder-Monk, Wellington High School
  • Geogina Kebbell and Rose McLellan, Paraparaumu College

Silver medals were awarded to:
  • Emily Fiennes and Isabel Kelly, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
  • Ashilta Sharma and Jessica Suo, Wellington East Girls College
  • Cassidy Cosgrove and Georgia Groen, Kapiti College

Bronze medals were awarded to:
  • Morgan Archer and Hannah Sampson, Samuel Marsden Collegiate School
  • Polly Pesheva and Megan Park, Naenae college
  • Shagufa Mirzad and Joely Huang, Wellington East Girls College
  • Briana Hunt, Paraparaumu College, and Evangeline Martin, Onslow College
  • Georgia Borthwick and Maddison Batten, Kapiti College

Victoria University will host the 2011 Programing Challenge for Girls around the same time next year, and all year 10 girls are welcome to participate. Please contact A/Prof Alex Potanin for further information.

To find out more about about the Programming Challenge for Girls, go to: http://www.pc4g.org.nz

Many thanks to the following people for their help in making this event a success: Dr Alex Potanin, Dr Peter Andreae, Dr Stuart Marshall, Dr Hui Ma, Dr Petra Malik, Dr Xiaoying Gao, Dr Monique Cano-Damitio, Dr Marcus Frean, Dr Ian Welch, Huia Hopkirk, Stu Sharpe, Julianne Lim

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