Ready for a coding challenge?
What’s the Challenge?
In 2023 the Code of Origin will be a friendly challenge for all of Australian clubs, and our friends overseas who would like to join in, where we challenge all 8 of our amazing states and territories against each other through coding projects. Each term a winning state or territory will be declared based on the number of project submissions.
How does it work?
Each school term we will release a series of brand-new Scratch coding projects that showcase two states or territories in the challenge. The projects have 2 aims — to teach coding skills to kids and to support learning in the classroom by integrating with other curriculum areas. So how do we know when things will happen? We have created a visual just for this!
What do we need to do?
We want everyone to take part and there are so many ways that you can approach this. To make it simple here are all the links that you need to access: -
Code of Origin page— all the details are housed here.
Code of Origin projects — we have organised them on our website.
Code of Origin starters — access this Scratch studio for project starters.
Sharing of projects — access this Scratch studio to see what others have made.
We encourage everyone to have a go at one or more of the projects and to share them back to us to be added to the Scratch studio. We have a link on our website or you can use this link to share your project. The winning state or territory will be the one with the most submitted projects by the end of the term.
Term 1 — New South Wales versus Queensland
We have started the year with two states who have a friendly rivalry each year with the State of Origin Football series. So we thought it was a great place to start a coding challenge. We have 2 featured projects, and each project has a New South Wales and a Queensland version to try.
What is it famous for? — project
This project is based on a Where’s Wally concept where the states national fauna is hidden in a variety of scenes for the user to find. Each scene showcases a famous landmark or landscape of that state.
The coding project builds skills in changing backdrops each time the sprite is found and clicked and placing sprites in specific locations with focus placed on the sprite's direction and size. This project is great for beginning coders and is ideal for the year 3/4 band of the Digital Technologies curriculum.
To support implementation of the Australia Curriculum (version 9) this project can be used for the following achievement standards-
Year 3 HASS — They identify the significance of events, symbols and emblems to Australia’s identity and diversity. They describe the representation of places within and near Australia.
Year 4 HASS — They describe the importance of environments. They describe social factors that shape identity.
Produce- project
This project is a catch game where the user moves a basket to catch produce that each state is one of the highest producers of. Each product falls differently and is worth a different value of points with the aim to reach 100 points.
The coding project builds skills in iteration, using variables and creating conditions for if then statements. This project is great for coders with some experience and is suited to the year 5/6 band of the Digital Technologies curriculum.
To support implementation of the Australia Curriculum (version 9) this project can be used for the following achievement standards-
Year 5 HASS — They explain the nature of resources, and how they meet needs and wants.
Year 6 HASS — They explain the influences on consumers and strategies for informed consumer and financial choices.
Are you ready to join the fun?
We can’t wait to start adding projects to our Scratch studio from Code Clubs everywhere. We are really excited to see how your coders innovate and adapt the projects in their own ways! Perhaps they will add levels, adapt the project to their own state or maybe even create a similar project using Python, HTML & CSS or using Micro:Bit.
Why not get started today and trial a project! Access the project pages, share the starter projects and most importantly make sure you share your projects back with us. We will keep an update on our socials to the results of the competition throughout the term so keep checking back with us. Please note — you can share your projects and request that they are not shared in the Studio, so that you are still part of the voting process.
And most importantly, remember, EVERYONE can take part. You don’t have to live in the states being showcased to take part. Each term the projects and submissions are open to everyone. But if you want your state to win, the more submissions you can enter the better.
Happy coding!
Kaye, Code Club Australia.
