Primary and secondary school learners are invited to take part in the BOATS virtual schools tournament that takes place this week and next, till June 5.
BOATS and its predecessors, TANKS and RANGERS, teach schoolchildren coding without the need for a computer.
Professor Jean Greyling and his team at the Nelson Mandela University computing sciences department have reached over 20 000 pupils across the country since TANKS was launched in 2017. The games raise awareness around environmental issues such as poaching and marine conservation.
In the game, participants need to use their boat to ‘pick up’ plastic from the ocean and answer multiple choice questions to score points. Players can then choose to submit their score to take part in the tournament.
Enter individually or represent your school
Greyling says lockdown regulations mean they can no longer host physical coding workshops and have added features to BOATS which allow virtual tournaments, including scores being sent to a database for the competition.
The tournament has received nearly 200 submissions from 15 schools. The top 10 scoring students will win R100 in data.
The competition also aims to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. The school which registers the most participants will receive R4 000 to donate to a feeding schemes and data for learners, for example.
“Through our tournament we’re trying to raise funds to help schools address these challenges. So far we have raised R20 000, but we would still welcome more sponsors to benefit more schools,” says Greyling..
One of the tournament’s sponsors is the Red Band Barista Academy, a non-profit that trains unemployed youth as baristas. In response to COVID-19 and the national lockdown, the academy launched #coffee4heroes. The campaign uses public donations to provide healthcare workers with free coffee. For every learner in the BOATS tournament, a cup of coffee will be donated to medical staff in Port Elizabeth.
Greyling says there is also a plan to reimagine BOATS around the coronavirus theme.
“So instead of boats picking up plastics, a soap icon will move around neutralising COVID-19 tokens on the grid. The multiple choice questions and tips given while playing will then also have a COVID-19 awareness theme to keep learners aware of the pandemic.”
The competition kicked off on May 25 but participants have until May 29 to sign up on the app.
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