What happens at a hackathon?
Every hackathon needs a structure. There’s several ways you can run a hackathon. Here are a few suggestions which can be adapted to suit your schools needs.
Day Long Hackathon
| Time | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Start of hackathon | Students arrive and get setup with a computer and with the tools required. |
| 10:00 | Workshop: Part 1 | Workshop based on an API, library, or tool. This can be led by a teacher or a Hackathons for Schools mentor. |
| 11:00 | Break | An opportunities for students to go to the toilet and digest the workshop. |
| 11:15 | Workshop: Part 2 | The workshop continues, by looking at a different part of the topic. |
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch break before the hacking starts. |
| 12:30 | Hacking starts | Students get into teams and start working on a project. They will be given some ideas based on the workshop |
| 16:30 | Presentations | Each team will demo their project and explain what they did and how they did it. |
| 17:30 | End of hackathon | Students start to head home. |
Weekend Long Hackathon
Day 1
| Time | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Start of day 1 | Students arrive and get setup with a computer, and with the tools required. |
| 10:00 | Workshop 1: Part 1 | Workshop based on an API, library, or tool. This can be led by a teacher or a Hackathons for Schools mentor. |
| 11:00 | Break | An opportunities for students to go to the toilet and digest the workshop. |
| 11:15 | Workshop: Part 2 | The workshop continues, by looking at a different part of the topic. |
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch break before the hacking starts. |
| 12:30 | Hacking starts | Students get into teams and start working on a project. They will be given some ideas based on the workshop |
| 16:30 | Presentations | Each team will demo their project and explain what they did and how they did it. |
| 17:30 | End of day 1 | Students start to head home. |
Day 2
| Time | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Start of day 2 | Students arrive and get setup with where they were the day before |
| 10:00 | Warm up session | Mini game to help get the students more engaged. This can be led by a teacher or a Hackathons for Schools mentor. More information on mini games can be found here. |
| 10:45 | Hacking resumes | Students get into the same teams as the day before, and continue with their projects. |
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch break. |
| 12:30 | Hacking resumes | Students continue working on their projects. |
| 16:30 | Presentations | Each team will demo their project and explain what they did and how they did it. |
| 17:30 | End of hackathon | Students start to head home. |
What kind of workshops could be run?
Workshops could be run either by a teacher, or one of our fantastic mentors. They provide a great source of insipration for the students taking part in the hackathon, so we recommend running a workshop with content which can easily be replicated by the students.
The optimal environment for running a workshop would be in separate room to the main event space, perhaps in another classroom.
For inspiration when designing your workshop, please check out our resources list where you will be able to find a number of examples created by the team.
Other mini-events
It’s important to break up your day, giving the students a break and keeping them engaged. We’ve got a list of mini games you can put into your schedule to help break up your day.
- Games
- Short competitions (programming based or not)
- Talks from guest speakers