Role of Tutors

Each tutor will be assigned 2 or 3 teams for which they will be responsible for throughout the duration of the challenge. They are expected to:

• Help the team pick a suitable challenge (especially for Track A)
• Encourage teams and assist with debugging without giving the solution away
• Suggest additional features or improvements for the team’s project
• Keep track of each team's progress using the established mark scheme.
• Award their group prizes at the end of the hackathon
• Optionally nominate standout teams for the main award.

Providing guidance throughout the hackathon

Tutors are expected to actively support their assigned teams, spending most of their time rotating among them and remaining accessible to check on their progress. While tutors may assist any team, the focus should be on guiding the teams they are specifically responsible for.

Key Points:

• Check with teams often: Tutors should check in with their teams every ~20 minutes. This should serve as a break from looking at screens and for teams to do their mandatory rotation of roles.
• Students are Supposed to Get Stuck: The challenges are intentionally tricky to stimulate learning and development. They are designed to be achievable within the day through group collaboration and hints from tutors. Tutors should anticipate that their groups may spend significant time to understand and implement a feature properly.
• Tasks Increase in Difficulty Exponentially: Tutors should expect the initial tasks to be completed relatively quickly compared to subsequent ones. Tasks towards the end, especially in Track B and beyond, require significant synthesis of various components. For instance, implementing an eraser could take longer than the combined time of the three preceding tasks.
• Monitor Design Time: While it's ok for students to create their own sprites, tutors should monitor that they don't devote all their time to design. Encourage students who spend excessive time in the sprite costume section to also focus on other aspects of the project. This ensures they gain comprehensive experience, as the primary goal isn't artistic expression but developing computational thinking skills. One way to nudge a student or group towards coding could be “I love the sprite you’re making! What is it going to do in your game?”