The 7 Lakes contest at 7 Lakes HS in Katy, Texas was great.
There were tons of teams and schools.
The written results can be viewed at :
http://www.apluscompsci.com/7Lakes_Fin_Results_Adv_Written.pdf
http://www.apluscompsci.com/7Lakes_Fin_Results_Nov_Written.pdf
Check out a sample written test at if you are interested in seeing one.
I have posted the 7 Lakes programming results and some pics on my A+ Computer Science facebook page.
The Computer Science contest season for Texas is underway.
Waller HS hosted the first contest of the 2012-2013 season on Saturday, September 29th.
There were lots of teams and the competition was fierce.
7 Lakes will host the next contest on the 13th of October.
There is still time to join the fun.
Email Paul Stroud at 7 Lakes HS – PaulMStroud@KATYISD.ORG
Check out all of the dates on my contest dates page.
UIL Contests in Texas are underway. Schools will compete in numerous Academic Events over the next 2 weeks to qualify for the UIL Regional meet. Then, they can qualify for the UIL State meet which is held at the University of Texas at Austin campus. State Champions will be crowned on May 21st and 22nd.
Students and teachers all over the state prepare for and look forward to this time of year. The contests are great and they provide a chance for students to test their skills against students from all over the state.
Computer Science is a component of the UIL Academic Program. You can find out more about the Computer Science contest by clicking here – UIL Computer Science. Check out my site to download sample UIL Computer Science tests and programming problems.
I would encourage those in Texas to get involved! If you are in another state that has no contests, you should start a Computer Science contest of your own! It is great way to build your program and get more kids involved.
What are Computer Science Contests?
First, this is a rewrite / update of a prior post related to contests. I needed to include some of this again and update quite a bit as the new CS Contest season is underway here in Texas. Texas has tons of contests and I feel the contests are great ways to recruit more students.
Computer Science contests are huge in Texas and they should be huge everywhere. Basically, you have a contest every two weeks if you live in Houston or the surrounding area.
The 7 Lakes Kick-off Classic took place this past Saturday, October 8th. This contest starts off the statewide contest circuit each year. The season wraps up each year in May with the UIL State Academic Meet Computer Science Contest. This state contest is the culmination of all of the local contests.
Each contest typically has a programming component and a written test component. The programming component consists of a packet of problems that each team must attempt to solve. A standard packet will have 12 problems. A more expanded packet may have 18. Each local contest has the option to create their own packet and set the number of problems.
The UIL Computer Science Contest, a statewide contest in Texas, has 12 problems so that is the number most local contests go with. The written component consists of a 40 question multiple-choice test. Test questions focus on logic, algorithms, data-structures, and language features. All tests used in Texas use Java as the testing language.
Why take teams to contests?
Contests force students into a real team environment with the added pressure of finite time. Most programming contests only last two hours and only allow teams to use one computer. Teams must learn how to work together in a timed environment to solve problems. Students learn valuable teamwork and problem-solving skills in these settings each and every time they compete.
Teamwork is key! Each team of 3 students is allowed to use 1 computer. All 3 students must share time and learn to work together to get things done. This is hard for all students, but especially for Computer Science students which typically try to avoid working with other people at all cost. My students experience tremendous positive growth learning to work in these situations.
Another benefit is that many large software companies use similar problems for interviewing purposes as those often seen in contest packets. A common programming problem often involves determining if an exit from a maze exists. A former student of mine was asked to explain solving this exact problem when interviewing for a Google position.
Winning is contagious! Get a few students to go compete and actually win and your enrollment will spike upwards. All students want to be a part of a winner.
How do I get involved and help my students prepare?
If you are in Texas, check my contest dates page. If you are in another state, find out who hosts contests or host your own. Check out my site for information on hosting your own contest. Send me an email if you have questions or want to get started.
Encourage your students to solve lots and lots of problems. I maintain a contest practice site loaded with tons of live problems. USACO and CodingBat are also great resources for live practice. Get your students to “crank code” as much as possible.
Looking forward to a great year
The 2011-2012 season is underway and it looks like we will have an awesome year! Good luck to all!
What are Computer Science Contests?
Computer Science contests are huge in Texas. Basically, you have a contest every two weeks if you live in Houston or the surrounding area. In the fall, the contest season starts in early October with the 7 Lakes Kick-off Classic which starts the whole contest circuit. The season wraps up each year in May with the UIL State Academic Meet Computer Science Contest. This state contest is the culmination of all of the local contests.
Each contest typically has a programming component and a written test component. The programming component consists of a packet of problems that each team must attempt to solve. A standard packet will have 12 problems. A more expanded packet may have 18. Each local contest has the option to create their own packet and set the number of problems. The UIL Computer Science Contest, a statewide contest in Texas, has 12 problems so that is the number most local contests go with. The written component consists of a 40 question multiple-choice test. Test questions focus on logic, algorithms, data-structures, and language features. All tests used in Texas use Java as the testing language.
Why take teams to contests?
Contests force students into a real team environment with the added pressure of finite time. Most programming contests only last two hours and only allow teams to use one computer. Teams must learn how to share a single computer and work together in a timed environment to solve problems. Students learn valuable teamwork and problem-solving skills in these settings each and every time they compete.
Another benefit is that many large software companies use similar problems for interviewing purposes as those often seen in contest packets. A common programming problem often involves determining if an exit from a maze exists. A former student of mine was asked to explain solving this exact problem when interviewing for a Google position.
Winning is contagious! Get a few students to go compete and actually win and your enrollment will spike upwards. All students want to be a part of a winner.
How do I get involved?
If you are in Texas, check my contest dates page. Several Texas contests are already posted. If you are in another state, find out who hosts contests or host your own. Check out my site for information on hosting your own contest.
Looking forward to next year
The contest season here in Texas just wrapped up. It was a ton of fun and I look forward to what next year holds. Good luck!
What up yo? Well, the Kodu Cup is up yo! 3D game creation for moolah and prizes! Okay, so rapping / slangy stuff is clearly not my forte, but you get the picture. This contest looks very cool and my students are really excited about getting in on the game creation action. I hope to have several projects entered into the contest by my students and may even get my 7 and 9 year old sons into the mix as well. I may eventually put together some Kodu materials and include them with my other curriculum materials.
You can find more information about Kodu at the main Kodu site – Kodu
Programming contests are very popular in Texas and most areas of the state host at least 1 each month. They are great vehicles through which to increase enrollment and to get students excited about “cranking code”.
It is very important to know what tools are available in your language before attending a contest. If the language being used provides a tool to help solve a problem, then teams should use that tool as part of the solution instead of writing every single line of code from scratch. I stress to my students to never re-invent the wheel. If the language already has a perfectly good wheel, put that sucker on your car and hit the road.
Java has lots of cool stuff built-in. BigInteger is a class that has many methods in it that can make solving certain math related contest problems much easier. BigInteger contains an isProbablePrime() method. This is quite useful at contests.
Using BigInteger in Java
It is equally important that student understand the algorithm being used to determine if a number is prime and how to create such an algorithm. Learning the fundamental algorithmic concepts is critical to being a well rounded CS student, but for contest purposes, it is all about speed and accuracy so using built-in methods where possible helps save time and prevent errors.
The University Interscholastic League will be hosting the 14th ANNUAL UIL CAPITAL CONFERENCE in Austin on the UT campus on July 9th and 10th. This conference is designed to allow teachers and UIL Academic coordinators to discuss the UIL Academic Competitions and the rules, procedures, and contest of the individual competitions. The conference will have a 2 day Java workshop and a PC^2 workshop.
If you are at the Capital Conference, stop by and chat as I will have a booth setup somewhere on site with information about contest preparation materials and curriculum materials for the upcoming school year and UIL Academic season. I will have some cool giveaways, sample materials, and demos running.
I will also be making a stop of at the Salt Lick for the world’s best barbecue. If you are ever in the Austin area, you have to drive out to Driftwood and eat the original Salt Lick Location. It is amazing stuff.
Follow up – The Capital Conference was great! I saw lots of people and had a great time. Thanks to all that stopped by to chat. The BBQ at the Salt Lick was world class as usual.
UIL Capital Conference
Floppy Disks Sentenced to Death
Gasp! The Horror!
What shall we ever do with no floppy drives and floppy disks?
I really was unaware that companies were still making floppies, but apparently they are still being produced.
I took my Computer Science team to a UIL Regional Computer Science contest and we had to submit our solutions on floppy disks. I was quite appalled to say the least and I had to search for days to find floppies and drives. It was like going back in time. The contest was held at a University which made it even more ironic. None of my laptops or PCs have floppy drives.
For those hosting high school contests, PC^2 is the only way to go. Forget the disks and USB drives and use a Computer Science solution to solve a Computer Science problem. We host a contest here in the Houston area and we use PC^2. The UIL State Computer Science meet here in Texas will use PC^2 this year and we are all very happy about that.
So – glad to see the floppies are being killed off. It is a long overdue death!
High School Computer Science season is just about to officially begin here in Texas as the UIL District Academic Meet is about to kick off. Computer Science Education in the state of Texas owes quite a bit of gratitute to UIL and the UIL Academic Contents. UIL Academic Competitions provide the venue for academic areas to compete and without them, Computer Science in Texas might likely be about as dead as it is in most other states. As UIL has a Computer Science contest, many schools have classes or at least teams in order to be a part of the UIL contest and to ensure that their respective school has entries in all events. This is very important as many Computer Science programs have grown from these seeds of competition.
The UIL Computer Science contest is a great contest and one that other states could model. The contest consists of a 40 question multiple choice test and a 12 problem two-hour programming contest. Teams compete and consist of 4 members. 3 members of the team program and all 4 take the written test.
I have been the sponsor of the Computer Science team and club at every high school at which I have taught. The Computer Science program has grown at every school at which I have taught and part of that can be attributed to the fact that we take teams to contests in Texas all year long as well as hosting our own contest. Students love to compete and want to belong to a winning tradition. Once the tradition is established, students start to pour in. Currently, there are over 450 students in Computer Science at my school and many of them are in the program as they want to compete and be the best.
Most of the Texas high school programming contests use PC^2 as their contest system.