SISTERS and Paul Sauer High School learners, Mia van Huyssteen (13) and Janri van Huyssteen (17) from Kareedouw, scooped top scores at the recent BOAST tournament \u2013 each winning a tablet.<\/p>\n
More than 400 learners from over 80 schools and non-profit organisations from across the country participated in the virtual tournament held from September 19 to 26, which used gamification to introduce them to basic coding concepts and social issues such as ocean conservation.<\/p>\n
Professor Jean Greyling, associate professor in Computing Sciences at Nelson Mandela University, said the tournament was a partnership between the university\u2019s Department of Computing Science, legal technology company, LexisNexis South Africa, and non-profit organisation, Leva Foundation, which empowers previously disadvantaged youth by providing employable skills development.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the tournament, learners logged in from home to access the BOATS Android mobile coding app. They were taken through multiple-choice questions that educated them about marine pollution and South Africa\u2019s cultural heritage. \u201c\u2019Up for grabs were TANKS school kits sponsored by LexisNexis South Africa, valued at R3 000 each. These kits introduce learners to coding concepts with the use of tangible tokens and image recognition, eliminating the need for a computer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunridge Primary School in Port Elizabeth had the most participants and won two TANKS coding kits.<\/p>\n
In addition to other incentives such as data and cash prizes, 24 schools each received a TANKS school kit sponsored by LexisNexis. Most of the schools will receive training early next year to roll out their own coding clubs.<\/p>\n
The tournament also provided the top participating schools and NGOs with a R4 000 voucher to purchase shoes for needy children from KwaNobuhle (Uitenhage), Langkloof (Koukamma), Hazyview (Mpumalanga) and Alexandria (Eastern Cape) through the #ShoesForChildren project, initiated by a young man, Godfrey Jacobs, from Colchester outside Port Elizabeth, in partnership with the tournament organisers.<\/p>\n
Greyling said TANKS was developed by one of his former students, Byron Batteson, who is now a Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services, to introduce learners to coding concepts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main coding project is TANKS, which is mainly dependent on interactive coding workshops that reach thousands of learners from mainly disadvantaged communities across the country. With the COVID-19 lockdown situation it was immediately clear that these workshops were not feasible. We consequently added features to BOATS to allow for virtual tournaments,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\n Success<\/b>\n<\/p>\n
He said this was the third tournament. \u201cWe had a big number of learners who participated enthusiastically and we received positive feedback from teachers who said the learners really enjoyed doing something exciting in a year where they have had limited extra-curricular activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe plan to keep contact with the learners, and hopefully have some of them do an online coding club with a programming language such as C#.\u201d<\/p>\n
LexisNexis CEO, Videsha Proothveerajh, said the company\u2019s involvement with the BOATS tournament was part of its annual RE Cares Month programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year we were extremely excited to include the BOATS tournament in our RE Cares programme, because technology exposure is very important to us as a company invested in tech solutions that serve the legal, professional and government sectors. One of our core values is also innovation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SISTERS and Paul Sauer High School learners, Mia van Huyssteen (13) and Janri van Huyssteen (17) from Kareedouw, scooped top scores at the recent BOAST tournament \u2013 each winning a 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