SCORING

Welcome to the Youth Coding League! YCL staff will be tracking students’ (coders) progress through the Youth Coding League at YouthCodingLeague.com. Coders will be able to see how they rank against other Youth Coding League coders and schools (teams), and parents will be able to follow along with what their kids are learning throughout the semester. Here’s how YCL staff will be tracking coder and team scores throughout the league.

Tracking Attributes for the Youth Coding League

A note on scores and team rankings:

  • Team rankings will be based on an average of the coders’ scores
    • For teams with 9 coders or less, 100% of their coder scores count towards their team score
    • For teams with 10 or more coders, 90% of coder scores count towards their team score
    • For teams with 20 or more coders, 85% of coder scores count towards their team score
    • For teams with 30 more coders, 75% of coder scores count towards their team score
  • Scoring is broken out by attribute below; coders can score up to 10 points per attribute and up to 80 points per sprint.
  • Coder scores will be cumulative as they accrue.

Attributes Tracked Each Sprint

Agility

  • What it is: Attendance
  • What we’re looking for: Did the coder attend YCL that sprint or session? We track this in the CS First dashboard by seeing if the student completed steps + completed work.
  • Scoring: 0 points for not attending, 10 points for attending.

Awareness

  • What it is: Code documentation, an important skill that developers use daily in the workplace.
  • What we’re looking for: Did the coder answer the reflection or discussion questions provided by CS First in the comments section of their Scratch project, and did they do so fully and thoughtfully and in-depth versus minimal, one-word answers?
  • Scoring: 0 points for no code documentation/answering none of the questions, 1-4 points for answering the questions at a bare minimum, 5-9 points for answering the questions fully and 10 points for answering all of the questions thoughtfully and fully, providing detail and examples from that day’s sprint.

Endurance

  • What it is: Steps completed for each sprint
  • What we’re looking for: Did the coder complete each step in the day’s curriculum, including answering any included surveys and watching the videos?
  • Tracked by reviewing how many steps were completed for each sprint in the CS First dashboard under Student Progress
  • Scoring: 0 points for no steps completed, 5 points for some steps completed, 10 points for all steps completed

Experience

  • What it is: Objectives completed
  • What we’re looking for: Did the coder complete all of the stated objectives for each sprint?
  • Scoring: 0 points for no objectives completed, 1-4 points for minimal objectives completed, 5-9 points for some objectives completed, 10 points for all objectives successfully completed

Intellect

  • What it is: Additional objectives (add-ons) completed
  • What we’re looking for: How many add-ons the coder attempted and successfully executed.
  • Scoring: 0 points for no add-ons attempted, 1-4 points for some add-ons attempted, 5-9 points for most add-ons, 10 points for all add-ons attempted successfully

Reliability

  • What it is: Quality Assurance
  • What we’re looking for: How smoothly does the project work as it should?
  • Scoring: 0 points for a project that does not function, 1-4 points for a project that minimally functions/doesn’t really work with lots of bugs, 5-9 points for a project that mostly functions/works, 10 points for a project that works as it should and runs smoothly

Collaboration

  • What it is: Coder feedback
  • What we’re looking for: Did the coder obtain feedback from a teammate?
    • Coders will ask a teammate to provide a line of feedback on their project in a comments box.
    • Virtual teams can obtain feedback over Zoom and type that into their project in a comment box, signing the feedback as directed in the sprint checklist.
  • Scoring: 0 points for not obtaining any appropriate feedback in a comments box, 10 points for obtaining appropriate feedback in a comments box.
      Examples of a 0-points Collaboration score:
      • No feedback listed
      • “Silly nonsense words”
      • “Boo”
      • “I liked it”
      Examples of a 10-point Collaboration score:
      • “I really liked how they used the “if/then” block.”
      • “It worked fine until I got to this part, and then it stopped working. They could debug this to make it better.”

Ingenuity

  • What it is: Creativity
  • What we’re looking for: How creative and involved the coder made their project.
  • Scoring: 0 points for no creativity/thoughtfulness, 1-4 points for a small amount of creative elements, 5-9 points for a creative, thoughtful project, 10 points for a project with cohesion, a strong narrative and lots of creativity used throughout the project

Epics and Milestones

Epics are overall thematic challenges that go above and beyond the eight attributes of the daily sprint scoring. Each Epic is made up of a Milestone that corresponds with each sprint.

  • The Scribe Epic is creative, and intended to tell a story.
  • The Explorer Epic is a technical, open-ended component; each milestone can be completed in a variety of ways. The end result is what’s important, and how it is completed is secondary.
  • The Sage Epic rewards kids who successfully complete every single Add-On for each sprint.
  • The Cerebral Assassin Epic carries over into other seasons and is tracked by a CS Username and is numerically-based; for example, the 100! Milestone rewards a coder with a perfect score of 80 for any one sprint
  • The Coder vs. Coder Epic rewards team participation; the Team Work Makes the Dream Work milestone is awarded when a coder joins a team and submits a group playoff project.