Background and Objectives

CoolThink@JC Competition 2024 (“The Competition”) is created and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, co-created by The Education University of Hong Kong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and City University of Hong Kong (“The Organisers”), and co-organised by Association of I.T. Leaders in Education and The Hong Kong Association for Computer Education, and supported by Education Bureau and Hong Kong Education City. The competition targets all Primary Four to Primary Six students and aims to promote Computational Thinking (“CT”) Education, enhance students’ awareness and interests on CT through coding and problem solving skills, enable students to apply their knowledge and skills on CT to solve problems, enhance creativity, innovation and coding techniques as well as encourage collaboration.

Competition Rules & Schedule

Awards

• Each team member of the above awards will receive a medal/certificate and prizes.
• Each team of Champion, First and Second Runners-up awards will receive a trophy.

All finalists will be awarded:

• Check Point ZoneAlarm Extreme Security Next-Gen- 1 device- 1 year sponsored by Check Point
• Book coupons worth $200
• Certificate

All participants will receive an e-Certificate of Participation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can the participating teams be formed by students from different grades (e.g. One P.6 students with Two P.4 students)?
A: Yes, as long as the team members are students from P.4 – P.6 in the academic year of 2023-2024, they would be eligible.

Q: Can the video be submitted via YouTube, Vimeo or even mailed in a USB drive?
A: No, the video must be submitted via the Google Form provided by the Organisers, the format of the video should be mp4 and not greater than 300MB in file size.

Q: Are teams needed to present the same thing they did at the Final if they enter the Grand Final in which the Final and Grand Final will take place on the same day?
A: Yes. And if the team feels that they have much to improve after the Final, they might well demonstrate an improvement in the Grand Final.

Q: Are English and Putonghua also permitted to be spoken during the competition, aside Cantonese?
A: Yes.

Q: Where may I find the submission form and the parents’ consent form?
A: Registration will start from 16 October 2023 (Mon). For each team, you are required to provide the names and classes of the three students, as well as contact information of the teacher-in-charge. After completing the registration, you will receive a confirmation email. The e-mail will include a Google Form link and other relevant documents. Please fill in the Google Form, as well as upload the 3-min video (in mp4 format, less than 300MB) / slide presentation (not more than 15 slides), parents’ consent form and submission form to the Google Form on or before 20 February 2024.

Q: Is there a definition with regard to “Daily Life Problems”?
A: No, there isn’t a strict definition. Daily life problems can range from home, school and community. The participating teams may think from the perspectives of parents, teachers, students, persons with disability, pets, and even general end-users, trying to imagine what kind of “Daily Life Problems” they are encountering. Please click here for an example.

Q: During the First Round, would the Assessors be assessing the film editing skill or shooting technique employed?
A: No, film editing skill and shooting technique would not be assessed during the First Round. The 3-minute video aims at describing a daily life problem and the solution using computational thinking and coding technique.

Q: Are the developed Apps allowed to connect with external devices or sensors, e.g. mBot, Arduino, METAS?
A: The organiser has no objection to connecting external devices to the developed Apps, but please note that if your team choose to participate in Scratch Category, only MIT Scratch (Online Version), or MIT PRG AI Blocks platform can be used. If your team choose to join App Inventor Category, only MIT App Inventor 2 can be used. Other version of Scratch and App Inventor will not be accepted.

Highlight of CoolThink@JC Competition 2023

Media Coverage

About CoolThink@JC

Seeking to inspire digital creativity among students and nurture their proactive use of technologies for social good from a young age, CoolThink@JC is a computational thinking education initiative created and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and co-created by The Education University of Hong Kong, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and City University of Hong Kong. In collaboration with local educators and the world’s leading experts, CoolThink@JC empowers teachers with high-quality teaching materials, learning platform, and professional development programmes. Since 2016, CoolThink@JC has trained more than 1,000 teachers from 178 primary schools and benefited over 73,000 primary students with CoolThink classes.

The CoolThink@JC approach prepares students for a fast-changing digital future through a hands-on, minds-on, and joyful learning experience. An independent evaluation has found that students participated in CoolThink@JC grew twice as much in problem-solving skills when compared with non-participating students. Following the successful implementation of the four-year pilot, the second phase of the CoolThink@JC has been launched in 2020, with the aim of mainstreaming computational thinking education. Click here for more details.