Congratulations to the students in Mrs. Paula McGuigan’s Computer Animation class at St. Mary’s Ryken (SMR). They had only five days to complete three programs for Mercer University’s Alice Programming Competition. The students regularly work in the “Scratch” and “Alice” programming languages, but not with the time pressure the contest demanded. . Nudged out of first place by only 31 points, the students came in second, scoring 428 out of a total of 600 possible points.
“This competition showcased the hard work that the students put forward in a short period of time,” said Mrs. McGuigan, a member of the SMR computer sciences faculty. “I am very proud of them. Their second place finish in a national event is a testament to their dedication and teamwork.”
The competition is hosted by the Department of Computer Science at Mercer University, which established the activity to promote programming logic in high schools and middle schools. Alice is a free, educational software system that teaches students computer programming in a 3-D environment.
The Computer Animation class introduces students to object-oriented computer programming and logical thinking. SMR is a college preparatory high school sponsored by the Xaverian Brothers. Each year, approximately 99% of graduates go on to college and the Class of 2014 earned $12.7 million in scholarships.
