How to run a hackathon in preschool?

Frederic WILLIQUET
Frederic WILLIQUET • 16 March 2022

In preschool and in primary school, the idea of running a hackathon is to challenge pupils to think innovatively about a specific purpose. The pupils are required to use technology at some point to gather information to succeed and/or to share their results. They can also write an online journal of the whole process. 

What are the steps of the process? 

 

1 — Designing the challenge 

The teacher identifies a challenge related to sustainability for the class to tackle. 

 

2 — Highlighting the issue 

The initial activity is to make the children aware that there are specific issues around them which could be resolved with collective action. The objective is to heighten the children's awareness regarding the problems without making them feel guilty. This part can also be different in a case of a STEAM challenge. For instance, watching a video of a rocket launch by the NASA for a rocket challenge. 
 

3 — Challenge

Someone (teacher or external person) will throw the challenge out to the pupils. Having someone else to do so other than their teacher could be a good way to engage the pupils and enable the pupils to see that their work has a purpose beyond the scope of the classroom. 

 

4 — Starting a journal 

Using an online presentation tool, we start a journal by reporting what we found. The teacher leads the process letting pupils choose pictures to illustrate their captions. The journal will be updated all along the way. 

 

5 — Framing the problem 

Group discussion “What do we know about the challenge, the problem?”. 

This might be followed by another session after the children have thought about it, discussed it at home, etc. 

 

6 — Finding a solution: group work

During 2 or 3 sessions, the pupils will explore the classroom space set up to encourage the discovery of ideas/items that could be useful for the challenge (the teacher places clues in the classroom space). They will try to find solutions. The material will be made visible by the teacher who will be there to help and support the process. 

Each session will be followed by a feedback moment where the different solutions will be noted. We then record the solutions in our online journal. 

 

7 — Voting for a solution or choosing a solution individually 

We will illustrate the different solutions in a document that will be shown on the digital board. We will continue with our usual voting process and write on the digital board. 

First step: each child can vote as many times as he/she likes. The teacher asks who votes for which solution and writes the total of votes. 

Second step: we keep only the 3-4 solutions that received the most votes (or less if they were only 5 at the beginning, for instance). Each child chooses one solution by drawing a line under the illustrated solution on the digital board. 

We count the votes and find our final solution. 

For some challenges (such as launching and rocket), each child can choose his/her favourite solution (and make his/her own rocket to take back home). 

 

8 — Create a presentation to share our solution 

Using a digital tool, we create a presentation explaining the issue we discovered and the solution we found. 

We can also videotape the results of a STEAM challenge. 

 

9 — Our feedback on the project 

We will finish our online journal by recording comments on the project. 

If possible, the person who presented the change will contact us to give pupils the opportunity to present their solution and to validate it. 

 

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You can find more details in the learning scenario proposed by Vanessa Dubois:  

LS-2022-N-EN-Dubois - Hackathon.docx 

You can also look at this example of a hackathon journal in preschool: 

Example of a hackaton in Nursery by DUBOIS Vanessa (LAE-Teacher) on Genially 

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The hackathon process can be applied to a variety of projects/topics. It can be adapted and modified. It can be used for STEM challenges, problem solving activities, citizenship lessons (about how to be kind with other for instance). 

 

Comments (3)

ADEVİYE ERTÜRK
ADEVİYE ERTÜRK

Hello ! Should the Hackathon in Kindergarten be planned considering climate change awareness and environmental approaches? Will there be tree planting activities? Are there seed separation and environmental approaches?

François Jourde
François Jourde

Hello. We are developing a methodology for hackathons in early education. We hope this methodology will be applicable to various educational projects related to sustainability competence, such as the one on planting trees.


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