It’s time for another H₂O Hackathon, a unique event that taps into the technological and problem-solving skills of local students to help find solutions to the state’s water issues.
The Fifth Annual H₂O Hackathon is scheduled for March 21 and is expected to be the biggest yet, with teams of students competing in middle school, high school, and college divisions. The team with the winning app from each division, at the end of the daylong competition, will walk away with a cash prize. Second place and third place cash prizes will also be awarded in each division. Registration is open now.
No coding experience is necessary to compete in this year’s contest, which will be using a block-based coding platform and a new curriculum and lesson plan developed by CodeStack, the San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) software engineering department. Students from San Joaquin Delta College and the University of the Pacific can register to compete in the college division. However, high school and middle school teams must include an instructor in order to register.
Learn more and register at www.h2ohackathon.org/. The website also includes a guide how to use the coding platform and other information to provide teachers and students all they need to know to compete.
Organized by the SJCOE and iHub San Joaquin in partnership with Restore the Delta, A.G. Spanos Companies, Café Coop, BOSS Systems, Stockton Unified School District, San Joaquin Delta College, and the University of the Pacific, the H₂O Hackathon provides students an opportunity to implement real-world applications of the science, engineering, and other skills they are learning in school. At the same time, the products created by students during the Hackathon could become valuable tools to help California find solutions to some of the problems surrounding issues of water. This year’s challenge was developed in cooperation with the San Francisco Estuary Institute and the California State Water Resources Board. The H₂O Hackathon is supported financially by partners from educational agencies, municipalities, community organizations, and the business community.
The Fifth Annual H₂O Hackathon will be held at the SJCOE on March 21. Up to 50 teams will be able to compete across the three divisions. Space is limited.
