Multi-Track Programming Competitions with Scratch (2016)

High school programming competitions often follow the traditional model of collegiate competitions, exemplified by the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). This tradition has been reinforced by the nature of Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP CS A), for which ICPC-style problems are considered an excellent practice regimen. As more and more students in high school computer science courses approach the field from broader starting points, such as Exploring Computer Science (ECS), or the new AP CS Principles course, an analogous structure for high school outreach events becomes of greater importance. This paper describes our work on developing a Scratch-based alternative competition for high school students, that can be run in parallel with a traditional morning of ICPC-style problems