Coding education was introduced in Bhutanese classrooms in the beginning of 2020. Then REC came up with a coding curriculum from class PP to class 12 besides training the teachers of all levels of school.

Coding was given the highest priority by His Majesty the King. The Prime Minister of Bhutan also accorded a lot of importance to coding education. He went further in stating that coding will be taught as a third language in the school. And coding will be a compulsory subject to pass to be promoted to the next class.

Although coding was novel to most of the teachers, they still pulled through the training accorded to them. Teachers were committed to taking the coding to their students. Over the time, we have been witnessing the impacts of coding in the students of Bhutan.

In accordance with the curriculum Python programming language was taught from class 9 to 12. We decided to teach our students the Turtle module in Python programming language. We felt the learners would learn best if we introduce them with some graphics rather than pure text based programming language.

The initial excitement in the students began to wane. Our students have by then realised that coding was not easy as it seemed. An apathy began to seep in when our students knew that there wouldn’t be an examination for the subject. Our students were used to studying for the examination only. We observed that they began to neglect coding education that posed a serious challenge to the ICT teachers in the country.

In the department we discussed ways to motivate students to learn coding besides without examination for the subject. We came up with many activities and narrowed down to Hackathon. We felt Hackathon would not only help our students learn the Python programming language but also to build soft skills like communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking.

In 2020 towards December we decided to organize a Hacakthon to generate graphics using Python’s Turtle module. We proposed to the school and then REC. We received a fund of Nu.10,000 from REC and some additional funds from the school.

There were around 120 students interested in participating in the Hackathon. The turnout was beyond what the resources could match. So we conducted a begugging test for all the participants; same questions for all the levels of students.We selected 40 students based on the merit ranking of the debugging test. Coincidentally, there were 20 boys and 20 girls participants.

It was interesting to note that Tenzin Wangchuk in class 10 topped the debugging test. We hoped for class 12 to come on the top. It proves that computational thinking does not necessarily depend on the level of class.

We divided the participants into ten teams each with four members from different levels. As part of the team building process we gave them a project of their choice. Their project also gave us a boost of confidence to conduct a Hacakthon. We gave the significant years of His Majesty the King as the team names: 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2020.

In order to set the mood for the Hackathon, we invited a guest speaker virtually. Mr. Thinley, a curriculum developer from REC gave a talk to the participants on the importance of learning to code.

The Hackathon began from 08:30 AM to 04:00 PM on 12th of December 2020. The event went live on our school facebook page and was also covered by BBS on that night’s news bulletin.

The participants were given the task to generate a GNH progress wheel. The wheel consists of domains like Leadership and management, Green School, Curriculum Practices, Broader Learning, Holistic Assessment and school Community Vitality. It also showed the current rating and the target rating of the school in those domains.

While the participants were busy with the task we organized an exhibition to the teachers, students and parents. We use a software called Veyon to broadcast the desktop screen view of all the teams on a TV screen. So that the visitors could see what the teams were coding live without distracting the teams.

Mr. Changa Dawa and Ms. Spana judged the entries out of 50 points. Team 1980 was declared as the winner of the Hackathon and they bagged prize money of Nu.3000. The team 2011 was the runners up and they bagged a cash prize of Nu. 2000. The consolation prize of Nu.500 each was given to other teams.

Most people consume information through mobile phones besides using it as a means for communication. The mobile phone and the network coverage had reached the remotest part of the country. So we felt exposure to mobile computing is important given a huge opportunity in the field of mobile app development.

There were around 130 students interested in participating in the Hackathon. We oriented them all on MIT appInventor, an online platform for mobile development. The platform has a designer and block interface. The frontend of the user interface is designed using the designer and business logic in block windows. It’s recommended to learn Scratch, another platform created by MIT for learning block based programming, before appInventor.

We selected 44 students from the interested students based on their midterm examination marks and attendance for a week of training. The selected students teamed up and began to work on the apps which solves a problem. They took formally 14 hours to develop the apps.

The teams learned, explored and developed the applications. They took ownership of their learning by exploring resources both online and offline. They have given their best in developing their applications within a short period of time.

During the Hackathon, the teams were asked to include a splash screen with our school logo.They were given around one hour. Thereafter, each team made a presentation and demonstration on the apps to the two judges.

We invited Mr. Yonten Jamtsho and Ms. Sonam Wangmo, the lecturers of Gyelposhing College of Information and Technology who were undergoing a course in Samtse College of Education, to judge the entries. They judge the apps based on the following criteria:

• Statement of the problem
• Address the issue
• How to use the app?
• General Appeal with school logo in the splash screen
• Innovation and uniqueness
• UI and Quality Experience
• Inclusion of traditional touch in the design

Eleven mobile applications were developed, presented and demonstrated at the end of the Hackathon. The apps covered counseling, productivity, educational, ecommerce, travel guide and COVID-19 Advisory. Samkham-a counseling app - was the winner and Sha Tshub- a productivity app- was the runners up. They begged for a cash prize of Nu.3000 and Nu.2000 respectively. All other nine teams were awarded a cash prize of Nu. 400 each.

All the mobile applications were exhibited to the students and teachers of our school. The exhibition provided the platform to showcase the team's innovation and also provide exposure to students who could not participate in the Hackathon.

While we have observed that the team members were able to communicate, collaborate and come up with creative solutions some teams couldn't get along. We need to focus on developing the traits like collaboration, communication, critical and creativity skills in our school. The content can be acquired in a short period of time but such skills require a lot of investment in terms of time and effort.

Most of our students are now aware that Hackathon provides the platform to find solutions to problems. It’s able to produce solutions within a short period of time after an intense creative exercise.

The participants took the responsibility to explore and learn from the resources available both online and offline. We have observed that participants could acquire information without our assistance. The participants' potentials were evident during the course of the event which are rarely visible in the classrooms.

The students have developed a positive attitude towards coding education. Over the years, they learn coding to produce some applications. They now could visualize the purpose of learning to code.

It provided an opportunity for the students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired from different subjects through the mainstream curriculum. The participants have realized that developing an application needs multiple knowledge and skills.

Hackathon can be an innovative pedagogy to engage our students to find solutions to problems. It provides an avenue to hone their communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills. It also provides opportunity to the students to cross pollinate the knowledge and skill acquired from other subjects. Organizing such events in the school prepares our students to be innovative and lets them see problems through the perspective of solutions. Further, it makes them realize the purpose of learning different disciplines in schools besides developing positive attitudes towards learning.