Texas Instruments has held plenty of contests in the past, from the #TISelfieContest to Math for the Win. Rarely have they held contests of skill that resemble our occasional programming contests, and never (to my knowledge) have they had a programming-related contest of their own. TI's new The Search for STEMnauts "virtual scavenger hunt" aims to change this. A collaboration between NASA and TI, the scavenger hunt challenges teams of up to 5 students in 6th through 12th grades, overseen by an adult mentor, to solve NASA-related programming and problem-solving puzzles.

Throughout this contest, you need to solve a series of activities to earn points. The topics of the activities range from the International Space Station, Earth, and Mars to deep space, aeronautics, and pure technology. The activities themselves involve running programs on your calculator, deciphering codes, and presumably also writing your own programs. So far, only the International Space Station activities have been released. You can enter any time before the scavenger hunt ends on May 31st, and you get points for the activities you correctly complete. The winning team gets TI-84 Plus CEs, a $500 Amazon gift card, and other prizes, and five other teams will be randomly selected to receive TI-84 Plus CEs as well. If you and your friends are in 6th through 12th grade, and you like programming, STEM, or space, you should give this a try! We ask that you please not post the answers on the Cemetech forum, although we encourage you to try to brainstorm approaches and find team members here.

Interestingly enough, the video announcing more details also mentions a new Galaxy Gray color for the TI-84 Plus CE that we haven't seen before. Hmmm...

More Information
The Search for STEMnauts informational website
The Search for STEMnauts introductory video

Whoa, this looks really fun! I think I'll try it out! unfortunately, only two of my friends knows programming though. Sad

Nevertheless it looks pretty cool! Maybe I'll be the lucky one to win one of those Galaxy-Grey CE's Very Happy

I call Kerm to be on my team! Laughing
Awesome contest! My teacher is sponsoring me, can't wait to start! Good luck to all who enter Very Happy
KermMartian wrote:
a new Galaxy Gray color for the TI-84 Plus CE that we haven't seen before. Hmmm...

Sure we have (well okay, not "see", but "read about"), back in February other models (Coral, Mint, and this "Space Grey" which now has its final name apparently) got listed on online retail stores.
The date could make one think they'd be announced at the T3 conference, but it looks like they didn't do that after all...
[original post removed]

Ha, I'm an id10t! I got it! Rolling Eyes
I chucked a little at the quality of the programs that are only in 3 of the puzzles they've made. Looks like they still haven't even finished the other puzzles yet, or are perhaps waiting a while to give others a chance.

"The Search for SPONSORS continues..."
This is a cool contest!
This is so cool. I'm definitely entering. Thanks for the heads up Kerm!
Just thought this image could use some cross-posting Smile

Adriweb wrote:
Et en fait voila tout simplement la collection des nouvelles couleurs:

Loose translation: Here is the array of new colors.
I'm pretty new to this whole thing, but I bought Kerm's book so imma enter!
#: Thanks for getting my book, and good luck in the contest!
Mr womp womp: I appreciate you sharing that image with us; it's greatly appreciated when we have an open dialog about such things. Smile
Great colors!

But I'm disappointed, I can't participate in this contest :'(
I'm not living in the USA..
Well, as of right now there are four teams that already have full points for the first part. There was one team that got it overnight, too. I would cry foul since it's perfectly possible to cheat (e.g. make a sacrificial team just for guessing, and then move the correct answers to the real team), which I suspect is what's going on right now.
DANG! I don't have any friends who program!
KermMartian wrote:
Mr womp womp: I appreciate you sharing that image with us; it's greatly appreciated when we have an open dialog about such things. Smile

I'm not sure what you really mean by that but the more people share their sources of information the better the "open dialogue" (overall transparency, even) is. If only you visited the topic I linked (precisely as a source of info), you'd have seen I had posted more info and updated it with the image (let alone a front-page news article as well), so it's nothing new. In fact it's actually out of "generosity" that I added some information in this topic here from what was already known in the community since February. I don't know how much more "open" I can be, and I can't fix the fact that one doesn't want to visit another site with more details.
But if there is another interpretation of the "open dialogue" part that I missed/didn't get, please do tell.

Also, in general: I have absolutely no problem being quoted/crossposted, but next time, mr womp womp, please link the source of the original post you copy/pasted (and even better, for an image, the actual origin too I guess (TI in this case), as I did in my own post): not only it's the correct (and decent) thing to do, but it would avoid communication issues and consequences thereof when people can't be bothered to look further than their own/favorite website.
Maybe if common courtesy was applied instead of passive-aggressiveness (you know, sentences like "it's greatly appreciated when we have an open dialog about such things."), I'd have also posted the image here myself, without even linking back to TI-Planet since I'd be the post author here as well, only TI's original page.

:shrug:
Switchblade wrote:
DANG! I don't have any friends who program!



You do now.
Apparently they think "Do Not Drink and Derive Kids" is an offensive name even though I clearly placed the words Do Not on the name. *sigh* Rolling Eyes
How goes the participating, people? I just got a marketing email from TI that reminded me that three of the categories are open now: International Space Station, Down to Earth, and Deep Space Patrol.
KermMartian wrote:
How goes the participating, people? I just got a marketing email from TI that reminded me that three of the categories are open now: International Space Station, Down to Earth, and Deep Space Patrol.


My team is ASUnauts. I think we are in 76th place, which isn't bad! The puzzles give you a good challenge; On top of that, I don't have a CE, making things even harder (I do use the school CE's, but I can't keep them), so I use SourceCoder to look at the programs. This is definitely more programming oriented though, so I like that Cool
Found an error in one of TI's STEMnauts programs. For the MACHOman challenge, line 56 has a period outside of a Disp command.

Code:
Disp"".

An easy fix, but important to know for those who don't know TI Basic Smile.

EDIT: This is in the MACHOMAN program, not the DECRYPT one.
  
Register to Join the Conversation
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.

» Go to Registration page
Page 1 of 1
» All times are UTC - 5 Hours
 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Advertisement