At Kodecoon Academy, we pride ourselves on sending our students for coding competitions and hackathons as we stay true to what we believe – students should apply what they have learned and be active creators of technology, and not mere passive consumers.
Imagine how proud we were when we found out that not 1, not 2 but 3 of our innovative and talented groups of students have clinched prizes in this year’s HACK@CODE, a national online coding competition for coders of any age between 7 and 14 years old!
The theme for HACK@CODE 2022 is Energy Reset, which stems from The Singapore Green Plan, our national sustainability movement tackling climate change. Our three wonderful teams of coders managed to put their innovative ideas, critical thinking skills, and teamwork into action to lead the way to tomorrow’s energised Singapore.
We invited the 3 winning teams, who are:
- 1st Runner-Up Award
- Kyle Xiong Zhihao, Rivervale Primary School
- Keshav Michael Viknesh, St. Joseph Institution (Junior)
- Ng Nan Feng, Geylang Methodist School (Primary)
- Bong Shi Yu, De La Salle Primary School
- Most inspirational Award
- Theodore Christianto, Queenstown Primary School
- Marcus Chua Ho Hing, Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School
- Ong Jia Xuan, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School
- Best Coding Award
- Lucas Soh Kang Jie, Sengkang Green Primary School
- Sia Kai Jun Caleb, Bendemeer Secondary School
- Josh Ong, Frontier Primary School
- Adam Tan Tye Yik, Springdale Primary School
to share with us their thoughts about winning the HACK@CODE competition.
Read on for their interview with Teacher Deddy!
1st Runner Up
The team’s project
The game is inspired from a game called Panic. In the game, you will have to dodge the polluted soil (the enemy) while trying to pick up as many batteries as possible. As a never ending game, players can compete with each other to get the highest score possible.
What made you interested in joining this competition?
Kyle: Teacher Deddy encouraged me to join this competition as I have learned Scratch before. I also felt that I need more competition experience
Keshav: I had nothing to do and wanted to make full use of our time after PSLE, so I joined this competition.
Nan Feng: I had free time after PSLE.
Shi Yu: Teacher Jin Yi invited me to join as I did well in the Kode it Sparkies Scratch competition.
What technical challenges did you face and how did you overcome them as a team?
Keshav: I tried removing the background music, but I changed the wrong codes, and it removed the jumping mechanism. The music button also shrank but we managed to fix it.
Shi Yu: At one point, the play button was so small that the mouse was covering it. There was another time when the music button was with the high score button, so it would give the user a high score when pressed. But we managed to solve the problem quickly.
What was your biggest takeaway from this project?
Kyle: I managed to get another competition experience that I can share during my DSA interview next year!
Keshav: I got to know my teammates better and learned their weaknesses and strengths for better planning of the project.
Nan Feng: I learned how to work as a team.
Shi Yu: We have to use google documents for better communication while working in a team.
Who would you like to thank for this project?
Kyle: I would like to thank the playtesters for giving us good comments.
Keshav: My teammates!
Nan Feng: Teacher Chrys for guiding us on how we could fix some of our bugs.
Shi Yu: My teammates!
Most Inspirational Award
The team’s project
It is a survival game where you catch the icons that are related to energy reset. The player wins if he/she gets a positive score when the timer ends. When the game ends, there will be a screen with a fun fact about Energy Reset, which will help educate the players.
What made you interested in joining the competition?
Theodore: I had free time after my examinations and decided to join as I love to code. I also love to draw, so designing the game’s images was particularly fun!
Marcus: My cousin also joined the competition, so I wanted to join, hoping that I will be on the same team as him.
Jia Xuan: I have been in Kodecoon for 6 years already, so after PSLE, when I had free time, I decided to take up this challenge.
What technical challenges did you face and how did you overcome them as a team?
Theodore: I lost my drawings. The images were in a document, and I couldn’t find them, so he had to search for some images on the internet to refer to and draw as a backup.
Jia Xuan: When two numbers were stacked on top of each other because there was an alignment issue so we improvised and shifted it to the middle.
How did you structure your team? Was there a specific role for each team member?
Theodore: I was the main programmer and the designer for the sprites and background.
Marcus: I’m the main researcher.
Jia Xuan: And I researched with Marcus, while helping Theodore with the codes from time to time.
Who would you like to thank?
Theodore: My teammates!
Marcus: My team of course! We bonded really well together!
Jia Xuan: My team!
Best coding award
The team’s project
The game is about a cute droplet named Welly, guiding you to defeat the evil boss. Along the way, you will complete challenges as you proceed to the evil boss. Welly will educate you along the way too and once you defeat the evil boss, you win.
What made you interested in joining the competition?
Lucas: Since Scratch uses drag-and-drop programming, it is quite easy to understand. The topic is also Energy Reset, which can help the environment or the world become a better place for us so…why not?
Caleb: I want to get more competition experience so when I join other competitions in the future, I won’t feel as nervous.
Josh: I like group competitions because I like to have team discussions. I feel that working as a group gives us better and more ideas to work on as compared to working alone.
Adam: I had nothing to do during the holidays and coding is my hobby.
What technical challenges did you face and how did you overcome them as a team?
Caleb: At one point, the text malfunctioned and everything was messy. Thus, I fixed it by decreasing the size of the text. The boss was also talking way too much and after talking, the attack would keep coming even if it had been defeated.
Josh: When we were creating the boss, the health was about one million so no one could ever defeat it. So we decided to reduce it to 5000 instead. There were also too many clones so we deleted the clones.
What is your biggest takeaway from this project?
Lucas: Communication is key.
Caleb: In a team, it is important for each member to focus on their own tasks first before meddling in other people’s tasks.
Josh: Teamwork makes the dream work!
Adam: The experience of learning how to work with a team rather than doing something on your own.
Who would you like to thank?
Lucas: My teammates, Teacher Azzy and Teacher Chrys (and myself for not coming late to class)
Caleb: My teammates!
Josh: My teammates and all the Kodecoon teachers for teaching me!
Adam: My whole team!
Kodecoon Academy is extremely proud of the 3 teams for their efforts and achievements. We congratulate our winners AND our other participants for their efforts in participating in this year’s Hack@Code Scratch 2022 competition! Great job, kiddos!
At Kodecoon Academy, our mission is to help our children of tomorrow channel their creativity to transform ideas into concrete realities beyond coding! We wish to shape more young talents to be tech-savvy, team-spirited learners in the field of STEM and make a positive impact in their community.
At Kodecoon Academy, our mission is to help our children of tomorrow channel their creativity to transform ideas into concrete realities beyond coding! We wish to shape more young talents to be tech-savvy, team-spirited learners in the field of STEM and make a positive impact in their community.
If you are keen to embark your child on an exciting coding journey, do contact us to find out more about our coding classes and register for our FREE trial classes today! You can also check out a brief introduction of our trial classes here for more information!