Projects can be entered into the Coolest Projects online showcase in the following 6 categories: Hardware, Scratch, Mobile Apps, Web, Games (excluding Scratch), and Advanced Programming.
A breakdown of each category can be found here.
Participants should answer the following questions in English, either in their videos or in the Instructions section of their Scratch projects:
- Tell us about your project. Why did you choose to make this project?
- What did you find difficult while building your project and how did you work it out?
- Is there anything you would do differently or you would add if you had more time?
If participants do not answer all three questions, it will be up to the judges to decide whether the project is eligible.
All projects are evaluated on four criteria: Coolness, Complexity, Presentation & Communication, and Design & Usability.
Judges will be asked to give projects a mark out of 10 for each of the scoring criteria, so it’s important to consider every aspect of your project carefully before submitting.
During the shortlisting period, all projects will be judged twice.
Shortlisted projects will be put forward to our panel of VIP judges who will be selecting their favourites from their assigned category.
The criteria breakdown is as follows:
- Coolness
- Does the project ‘wow’ you?
- Are you surprised/excited/delighted by the project idea?
- Is it something you’d be proud to show to other people?
- Is it original or unique in some way?
- Does it communicate the personality of its creators?
- Complexity
- How ambitious is the project? Both in terms of the idea behind it, and in the execution.
- How many processes have you had to follow to create the project?
- What level of technical knowledge have you demonstrated?
- How difficult was it for you to create this project?
- Presentation and communication
- How effectively have you communicated the idea behind your project and the function(s) it is intended to serve?
- How much care and attention has gone into the visual design of the project? Does it look cool?
- How well have you answered the questions asked in the application?
- Design and usability
- Does the project work in the way it’s intended to?
- Is the project user friendly? (i.e. would people have fun interacting with it? How easy is it to use the project for its intended purpose?)
Projects don’t need to be finished to be included in the Coolest Projects online showcase, but you should ensure that you are happy with your project before registering it as we are unable to upload any changes after submission.
Use this checklist to make sure that your project can be accepted in the Scratch category:
- I am 18 years old or younger
- I did not register this project for Coolest Projects 2020 or I have made a big change to this project since Coolest Projects 2020
- I am only registering one project, or one project per category
- My project is in English
- I have answered these three questions in English:
- Tell us about your project. Why did you choose to make this project?
- What did you find difficult while making your project and how did you work it out?
- Is there anything you would do differently or you would add if you had more time?
- I have saved my answers in the Scratch project ‘Notes and Instructions’ section
Use this checklist to make sure that your project can be accepted!:
- I am 18 years old or younger
- I did not register this project for Coolest Projects 2020 or I have made a big change to this project since Coolest Projects 2020
- I am only registering one project, or one project per category
- My project is in English
- I have made a video that is two minutes long (or shorter)
- My video shows my project and the code that I used to make it
- I have answered these three questions in English:
- Tell us about your project. Why did you choose to make this project?
- What did you find difficult while making your project and how did you work it out?
- Is there anything you would do differently or you would add if you had more time?
- I have included my answers in my video (either spoken or written)
- I have uploaded my video to YouTube or Vimeo (I am 13 years old or older) or I have asked my parents/guardians to upload my video to YouTube or Vimeo on my behalf (I am younger than 13 years old)
- I have disabled comments on my video
- The link to my video is not private, and I have checked that my video can be viewed by anyone.
Good luck!