A team of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts qualified for the Fifth Annual All-State Coding Competition.
The team of Tristan Goodell of Maumelle, Trey Clark of Harrison and Joshua Stallings of Little Rock will compete in the state coding competition that will be held May 1. They qualified for state in the All-Region Coding Competition that was held virtually Feb. 26.
More than 100 teams participated in the region 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 invite to the state-level event. The school that produced the first-place team at the state competition in 2020, the Don Tyson School of Innovation in Springdale, received an automatic invitation to send a team to the state competition.
Each member of the first-place team at the state competition 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 teams placing first, second, and third 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 Verizon to ARCodeKids.
“COVID changed almost everything, including this year’s regional coding competition, which was held virtually for the first time,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said according to a release from the Department of Education. “Regardless, competing off-site did not dampen the enthusiasm of the more than 100 teams that participated. All of these students are on a path to a bright future because of the work they have put into learning to code. Congratulations to the 17 teams that are advancing to the state competition in May.”