A team from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts was named a finalist in the Sixth Annual All-State Coding Competition.
ASMSA’s team is comprised of seniors Trey Clark of Harrison and Josh Stallings of Little Rock and junior Robert Boerwinkle of El Dorado. The team is sponsored by computer science instructor Nicholas Seward. It will be one of 17 teams competing for the state title.
The teams qualified for the state final by participating in the All-Region Coding Competition that was held as a digital even on Feb. 25. More than 150 teams participated in the regional event and were scored by the Arkansas Department of Education Office of Computer Science team using a common rubric and process. That process determined the top 16 teams to be invited to participate in the state-level event. The school that produced the first place team in the state competition in 2021 — Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale — received an automatic invitation to send a team to this year’s state competition.
Other schools chosen to compete for the state title are Arkansas High School in Texarkana, Bentonville High School, Bentonville West High School, Cabot High School, Conway High School, Fayetteville High School, Haas Hall Academy in Fayetteville, Haas Hall Academy in Rogers, Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Hot Springs World Class High School, Lisa Academy West High School in Little Rock, Little Rock Central High School, Mountain Home High School, Rogers High School and Star City High School.
Each member of the first-place team will receive a $2,000 award that will be deposited into a 529 College Savings Plan. Each member of the second-place team will receive a $1,000 award deposited into a 529 College Savings Plan, with each member of the third-place team receiving a $500 award deposited into a 529 College Savings Plan. In addition, the schools that register/sponsor the first-place, second-place, and third-place teams will receive $10,000, $6,000, and $4,000, respectively, to support their computer science programs. The prizes and competition expenses are provided by a grant from ARCodeKids.