The Annual K-12 Computational Thinking Fair

UPDATED Friday 2019/04/26

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CHANGES.

The format of the Computational Thinking Fair (CTF) have been both changed to ONLINE format. Dates have been changed as well.

Online Fair means that

  • REGISTRATION
    • participants will need to register as usual at (http://bit.ly/ctf12621)
    • Registration DEADLINE has been moved to Friday May 10th midnight.
  • UPLOAD
    • participants will need to UPLOAD their work.
    • We will send instructions on where and how to upload after registration.
    • Upload deadline is Sunday May 12th midnight.
  • SCHEDULE
    • participants will need to SCHEDULE for about a 30min online meeting (of which about 10mins will be a presentation).
    • We will send instructions on how to schedule after registration.
    • Video Conferencing presentations will be between 4pm to 8pm from Tue May 14th to Fri May 17th. 
  • PRESENT
    • At the scheduled time, participant will video conference (using zoom link that we will send) with the judges.

Register your project now at (http://bit.ly/ctf12621)

Download Flyer (pdf)

1. About the Computational Thinking Fair

The Department of Computer Science is proud to host the 10th annual Computational Thinking Fair! (What is Computational Thinking?) This annual event has a science fair-like format where contestants come prepared to present their projects to judges. It is a great educational event where participants learn to present their own work, as well as to learn about all the other exciting projects!

The 2019 competition is co-sponsored by Rockwell Collins, John Deere, Kingland Systems, and the Department of Computer Science.

Judges will be engineers, teachers, researchers, and other professionals who have an interest in encouraging K-12 excellence. They will provide individual feedback and evaluation to each participant.

For grade level K-3, this will be a non-competitive event and there will be prizes and recognition for all participants. For grade levels 4-6, 7-9, and 1-13, there will be Trophies given to winners - in addition to prizes for all participants.

To participate in this event:

  1. Decide if you want to work with someone else or by yourself.
  2. Decide on project ideas (You need to demonstrate computational thinking).
  3. Register for the event at our site Register your project now at (http://bit.ly/ctf12621).
  4. Start working on the project.
  5. Bring your project to the event.

2. Computational Thinking

Computational thinking means thinking like a computer scientist.  Participants will need to solve the problem posed by their project in the context of a computational model :

  • The Computational Model must have data and support abstraction.
  • There must be an instruction set. The instruction set must operate on the data.
  • The Computational Model must support input (a way to get data into the model) and output (results of the solution need to be visible to the judges).
  • The solution approach should encompass one or more elements of decomposition, pattern-matching, and abstraction. Contestants must be able to explain.

3. Competition Rules and Judging Rubric

Contestants can work in small groups of two or by themselves. Each entry (individual or team) must have a project that requires a solution and the solution must use computational thinking. Each student will present their project to a team of judges. Judges will rate the entries on:

  • Difficulty of the problem posed by the project
  • Cleverness of the solution to the problem
  • Appropriateness and cleverness of the computational model
  • Ability of the student(s) to explain how the project works

4. Example Past Projects

Register your project now at (http://bit.ly/ctf12621).

Email us at allscience@iastate.edu if you have any questions!