The 10th Hong Kong Primary School Computational Thinking Competition
Background and Objectives
The 10th Hong Kong Primary School Computational Thinking Competition (“The Competition”) is co-organised by CoolThink@JC and Association of Computational Thinking InnoCommunity Teachers, funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and supported by Education Bureau, Hong Kong Education City, Association of I.T. Leaders in Education, Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association, The Hong Kong Association for Computer Education and Subsidized Primary Schools Council. The competition targets all Primary Four to Primary Six students and aims to promote Computational Thinking (“CT”) Education, enhance students’ awareness and interests on CT through coding and problem solving skills, enable students to apply their knowledge and skills on CT to solve problems, enhance creativity, innovation and coding techniques as well as encourage collaboration.
Competition Schedule
Rules of the Competition
- Participating schools and teams must attempt with their best effort in competition.
- Each team can submit only one solution for the competition.
- The App must be developed by members of the team using Scratch or App Inventor and operated properly.
．Scratch Category: Please note that only MIT Scratch (online version) or MIT PRG AI Blocks platform can be used.
．App Inventor Category: Please note that only MIT App Inventor 2 can be used.
．Notice: Other version of Scratch and App Inventor will not be accepted.
- All entries must be originally and entirely created by the students and have not been previously published or submitted for any prior competitions.
- If participating teams have used generative AI tools in their entries, they must declare which parts were generated when submitting the works.
If no declaration is provided, the Organisers will consider the whole submission as the team’s original creation. Should the Organisers find generated content that was not declared, the team may be disqualified.
- Each team will only be allowed to change one team member once, and must notify the Organisers in advance.
- Participating teams should not disturb other participants.
- Damage to any facilities is not allowed.
- Food and Drinks are prohibited in competition venue.
- Illegal and improper behaviour is prohibited.
- Team may be disqualified if found to have violated the above regulations.
- The Organisers reserve the rights to make final decision.
Eligibility & Format
Eligibility
- Target Audience: Primary 4 to Primary 6 students in the 2025/26 academic year.
- Team Composition: Teams must be formed by school. Each team shall consist of 3 to 4 members (mixed grades are allowed).
- Quota: Each school may send a maximum of 5 teams.
- Requirements: Registration must be submitted by the teacher-in-charge. Consent from a parent or legal guardian is required.
Competition Categories
The competition is divided into two categories. Each team may participate in only one category:
Scratch Category
App Inventor Category
Competition Format Details
First Round
- The participating team will identify a problem related to “Promoting Healthy Lifestyle or Encouraging Exercising” and produce a 3-min video (in mp4 format, less than 300MB) or in slide presentation format (not more than 15 slides) to describe the problem and the solution using computational thinking and coding technique (Scratch or App Inventor), and submit the video or slide presentation (either one format, zipped file not accepted) via Google Form provided by the Organisers, together with a completed submission form and parents’ consent form before the deadline.
- There are two categories in The Competition, including Scratch Category and App Inventor Category. Each participating team can choose either ONE Category upon their preference.
- If participating team choose to join Scratch Category, please note that only MIT Scratch (online version) or MIT PRG AI Blocks platform can be used. If participating team choose to join App Inventor Category, please note that only MIT App Inventor 2 can be used. Other version of Scratch and App Inventor will not be accepted.
- All Entries received from the First Round will be assessed by Assessors. 10 entries from each category (20 in total from 2 Categories) will be shortlisted for Final.
Grand Final
- The Grand Final will be conducted in a Hackathon format on the day of the event, with the competition topic announced on-site.
- 20 Grand Finalist teams will be competing each other in the Hackathon. The Award Presentation Ceremony will be conducted on the same day.
- The Grand Judging Panel will be comprised of secondary school teachers, and teachers from non-competing schools.
Judging Criteria and Awards
Judging Criteria:
Judging criteria include creativity, innovation, functionality, interface design, coding skills and use of technology as well as team collaboration.
First Round Awards (Per Category)
- Gold Award
- Silver Award
- Bronze Award
- Merit Award (7 teams)
- The Best AI Application Award
* Team members of winning teams will be awarded medals and certificates.
Final Awards
- To be announced
*Winning teams receive medals, certificates, and prizes. Trophies for Gold Award, Silver Award, and Bronze Award.
All participating students will receive an e-Certificate of Participation.
Registration and Other Information
Registration
- Interested students can register online through your school teacher on or before 31 March 2026 (Tue).
Others
- Copyrights of the ideas/Apps are owned by the participants themselves.
- The Organisers reserve the right to amend, extend and interpret the competition guideline and rules without prior notice.
- The Organisers reserve the rights to exhibit students’ ideas/Apps.
For enquiry, please email: ctchackathon.26@gmail.com
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Yes, as long as the team members are students from P.4 – P.6 in the academic year of 2025-2026, they would be eligible.
No, the video must be submitted via the Google Form provided by the Organisers, the format of the video should be mp4 and not greater than 300MB in file size.
Yes.
Registration will start from 28 January 2026 (Wed). For each team, you are required to provide the names and classes of the three to four students, as well as contact information of the teacher-in-charge. After completing the registration, you will receive a confirmation email. The e-mail will include a Google Form link and other relevant documents. Please fill in the Google Form, as well as upload the 3-min video (in mp4 format, less than 300MB) / slide presentation (not more than 15 slides), parents’ consent form and submission form to the Google Form on or before 31 March 2026 (Tue).
No, film editing skill and shooting technique would not be assessed during the First Round. The 3-minute video aims at describing a problem related to “Promoting Healthy Lifestyle or Encouraging Exercising” and the solution using computational thinking and coding technique.
The organiser has no objection to connecting external devices to the developed Apps, but please note that if your team choose to participate in Scratch Category, only MIT Scratch (Online Version), or MIT PRG AI Blocks platform can be used. If your team choose to join App Inventor Category, only MIT App Inventor 2 can be used. Other version of Scratch and App Inventor will not be accepted.
