Join us for the 2020 South Carolina 4-H Coding Challenge! Youth will imagine they have traveled to Mars, and they will use Scratch to create an animated message about what they have discovered on the red planet. No experience is required, and the challenge is open to individuals ages 9-18. A 4-H Membership is not required, and the challenge is open to families, clubs, classrooms, or individual members. Teachers may register their entire class to participate using the group registration option. 

Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code events will be celebrated December 7th – 11th. This activity is a great way to participate in these events and introduce your students or club members to coding and build computational thinking skills. 

Registration is open from November 1st - December 9th. 

Online Submissions Accepted until Sunday, December 13th by 11:59 PM EST (Online submission instructions will be sent by e-mail to registered participants.)

More details: The 4-H STEM Challenge – Insight from Mars activity will serve as the basis of the project. The activity guide is located at: 4-H.org/InsightfromMars. To get started: 

• Create a free Scratch account at scratch.mit.edu.
• Follow the steps on the Insight from Mars Activity Guide page and watch the introduction video. (4-H.org/InsightfromMars)
• Using the starter project and provided scratch tutorial cards linked on the activity guide page, create the animation. The sky is the limit!

Rules: No pre-constructed code (excluding the starter project) may be used to complete the project, and the project should be the work of the participant. Images and sounds outside of the Scratch library may be included if desired. Youth will submit their project by providing a direct link to their Scratch project in the online submission form which will be provided by e-mail. In addition, youth will answer questions about their project on the online submission form. Example topics include an overview of their code and instructions on how to use their project. 

Age Divisions: Age should be calculated as of January 1, 2021. If an age division has 3 participants or less, the two age divisions will be combined. 

Cloverleaf (9-10years) | Junior (11-13 years) | Senior (14-18 years)

Judging: Each entry will be reviewed by a panel of judges. First through third place will be awarded based on the creativity, functionality, and programming of the project, as well as the quality of description provided on the online submission form. We recommend including at least 6 of 9 actions present on the Scratch Tutorial Cards. In the event of a tie, the efficiency of code (fewest steps to achieve the desired result) will determine the winner.