Published by KermMartian 9 years, 9 months ago (2014-07-02T13:34:01+00:00) | Discuss this article

Cemetech has a long history of hosting programming contests for the community. Most recently, we held a Lightning Contest (our eleventh contest), and last summer, we hosted Contest #10: Physics. We have had generous sponsors who have provided prizes for these past contests, and now that we have all prizes and a topic for a new contest, we are ready to announce Contest #12: Educational Shenanigans. Since we unoficially announced the topic over a week ago, we are thrilled to see that some Cemetech members have already started their entries, but now it's your turn to brainstorm a contest entry. Cemetech Contest #12 challenges you to create an educational program for the TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus. While we will allow games in this contest, our primary challenge to you is to create a program that teaches something, be it geography, geometry, history, literature, foreign language, engineering, physics, music, or any other subject. The rules are simple:

• Write a program or game that teaches a subject. Make it as educational or game-like as you want, as long as it teaches specific skills. This is key: programs that don't qualify as educational also won't qualify for this contest.
• Programs must be in TI-BASIC, Axe, or ASM. All 83+, 83+SE, 84+, and 84+SE programs will be tested on a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition running under Doors CS 7.2, so any libraries offered by Doors CS 7.2 may be used. All 84+CSE programs will be tested on a TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition running under Doors CSE 8.1, so any libraries offered by Doors CSE 8.1 may be used.
• Contestants may not release any code or binaries before the end of the contest, including asking for programming help publicly or privately. Violators will be disqualified. Projects that have already been released in any form (excluding a contest project topic) already are not eligible for the contest.
• The contest will run for 8 weeks, ending August 27th, 2014, at 11:59:59pm Eastern Time. No late entries will be accepted.
• All contestants must maintain a topic in the Contests subforum on Cemetech, including a first post that mentions the name, programming language, and topic of the entry.
• Four weeks from today, a special prize to be announced will be awarded to the entry that shows the most progress and promise, based on the posted screenshots and updates in the Contest subforum. Progress will be judged by the updates over time. The same entry can theoretically win this progress prize as well as one of the main prizes.
• Judging will be performed by the Cemetech administrators (all of whom are disqualified from entering). Results will be posted no later than ten days after the end of the contest.
• A grading rubric is attached below. Entries will be graded primarily on their educational value, polish, and appeal to students. Although the focus is on education rather than gaming, educational games are allowed as long as they teach concrete skills. We will be particularly impressed by educational programs reaching beyond math and science.

I'm sure you want to hear more about the prizes. We are very proud to offer two brand-new calculators. The grand prize winner will be awarded one TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition or one TI-Nspire CX, as chosen by the winner. The second-place winner will receive the remaining calculator, and the third-place winner will win a refurbished calculator, likely a spiffy TI-83+SE. Additional Cemetech swag may be added to the prizes at the Cemetech staff's discretion. All participants will earn Cemetech flair in the form of signature bars and respect. As you can see below, our anonymous donor has generously provided six calculators as contest prizes, so you can rest assured that this fall will bring two additional contests where you can win these prizes.

So what are you waiting for? Getting coding, inspire students to use calculator for more than math, and win some calculators!

More Information
Contest #12 Rubric
Contest #12 Rules

Two of these six generously-donated calculators will be awarded as prizes, with the remainder awarded for one or two contests in Fall 2014. A special thanks to our anonymous donor for making this contest possible!


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