Victorian Coding Challenge
BSC Junior-Division teams show off!
The Victorian Coding Challenge (VCC) is part of the Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series for high-ability students, and is funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Training.
It is clear that we have some budding IT programmers in our midst, and the VCC gave our students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and flex their STEM muscles! These students are very interested in IT studies, and this is reflected in their commitment to competing in the VCC. Additionally, their learning outcomes and achievement in the competition are an indication that IT studies are gaining in popularity and demand with this generation of students.
Stage 1 involved completing a 'virtual' kit that included a number of tasks for students to solve. They worked online at school and at home to successfully complete this work, after which they were invited to complete Stage 2. This involved students travelling to the Docklands to compete in the first ever face-to-face edition of the VCC (prior events were online only).
Students participated in unplugged computer science based relays and coding challenges using both Python programming and Linux operating system commands. This was a “capture the flag” style competition where they had to crack several different cyphers and puzzles in order to capture as many flags as possible.
BSC entered two teams in the competition; Year 7 Team (Tristan Ingham, Lachlan McMahon, Niko Milne and Oscar Bennett) and a Year 8 Team (Lucinda Blackmore and Lucia Sardina-Martin) who showed off their hacking & cryptography skills, being keen to make their mark on the competition. Both teams were very competitive and well in the hunt for success - with one team only barely off the podium and achieving a 4th place! The event was particularly demanding for our Year 8 team, who were scoring at the same rate as the others but had less people power to help tackle the large number of challenges.
Oscar B
Tristan I
Lachlan M
Niko M
Oscar B
Tristan I
Lachlan M
Niko M
Lucinda
Lucia S
Lucinda
Lucia S
We asked the BSC Teams “Overal, what was your most memorable experience from the day?” and they were keen to share their stories.
Lachlan McMahon
Year 7
The file jungle challenge [was the most memorable experience from the day] because me and my team finished it in the last ten seconds, and it got us to 4th [place]!
Oscar Bennett
Year 7
One thing I found enjoyable was the python challenges, specifically the picture one that hid the key. [Also,] the snake one that was a bit of a trick question.
Niko Milne
Year 7
These [Python challenges] were some of the most fun parts of the day, as there was no complications accessing the tasks - just problem solving using python and ciphers. Some were quite difficult, though, and the hints didn't help much!😉
All participating students overwhelmingly indicated they would give the event another go in 2023, so we are looking forward to entering the VCC again next year!
Click on the gallery to enlarge photos.
