Hosting a hackathon during high school can be an invigorating way to connect curious students to solve real-world issues. A "Hackathon for Social Good" takes on an extra meaning in that it motivates innovation and creativity for the betterment of society and can break down into issues around sustainability, health, education, or equity. When organized and thoughtfully planned with the end result in mind, these types of events can build skills like collaboration, coding, and problem-solving and develop empathy. Below is a recommended procedure to create a successful and impactful hackathon experience for high school students.
1. Define the Purpose and Theme
Begin with defining the core purpose of the hackathon. What social issue will you create the hackathon around? Climate change, mental health, education inequality, or other? The core theme will govern everything from challenges to criteria for judging completion of challenges. Keep in mind the core mission should provide connection with students, and how it relates to the work happening in their community when considering options while in planning. A core mission and purpose provides participants with motivation, and highly impactful team projects will come out of it. When you identify the "why", you will be able to seek added support, and sometimes host more participants and sponsors.
2. Build a Team of Organizers
Don't go at it alone. Form a team. A committee of excited student volunteers, teachers or mentors who can share responsibilities-- in marketing, tech support, logistics, and sponsorship. It takes a team to run a hackathon just as it takes a team to enter a hackathon. Build in regular meetings, roles and responsibilities, and communicate well. Teams with different skillsets and perspectives create better experiences and evidence shows they make better decisions. The most important consideration for a successful and worthwhile event is having a competent and dependable team.
3. Choose a Format and Venue
Make a choice whether the hackathon you are creating is an in-person, virtual or hybrid hackathon. Each has benefits. For high schoolers, a virtual hackathon allows them to help more participants to participate, while in-person events can help with stronger engagement. Find a venue to host your hackathon (i.e. school auditorium, library, community tech-focused space, etc.) and make sure there is Wi-Fi, power sockets, seating, etc. Specify local hackathon start and end times. Decide whether to use a platform like Zoom, Discord or Devpost for your virtual hackathon. Virtual platforms can ensure a good event and support collaboration.
4. Set a Realistic Timeline
Start planning at minimum 2-3 months prior to the day of the event. The planning process should include four phases at a minimum: initial planning, outreach, registration, logistics, and final prep. Allow teams 24-48 hours for the hackathon. Staying on this timeline will help with delays because of unforeseen obstacles. This may come in the form of issues with tech, a sponsor who goes unresponsive, or late registrations. Timelines are important because they create momentum forward and help your organizing team stay focused. Consider using project management tools to at least keep everyone on the same page like Trello or Notion.
5. Invite Mentors and Judges
Mentors are an important resource to support participants during the event. They can enhance the overall experience and provide expertise with coding, design, or social issues. Look for local professionals or university students or alumni with expertise in these areas. Judges will need to be both knowledgeable about technology and experienced with social impact, so they can fairly assess and judge projects. Provide judges with lots of detail on the individual scoring rubrics focused on the various categories which take innovation, project impact, feasibility of project, and presentation into account. A variety of respected judges and friendly/approachable mentors provides credibility and encourages participants to shoot for the stars.
6. Promote the Event Widely
Create excitement by publicly announcing and promoting your hackathon on social media, school bulletin boards, publicity in newsletters, and in community groups. Create nice posters and use social media platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and email to target students and potential mentors. Provide clear information about the theme, dates, prizes, and how to register. Ask the teachers and students leaders to spread the word. The more time and the more widely you can promote your event, the better the quantity and diversity of participants will be, which is important for getting attention to your hackathon and resulting in talented teams and ideas.
7. Secure Resources and Sponsors
Outline what you need - a venue, food, internet, software, prizes, and so on. Look for local businesses, tech companies, or nonprofits that will act as sponsors. Provide something for them in return - logos on posters, social media shout-outs, or speaking at the event. They also might be interested in donating in-kind donations (snacks, swag, mentorship hours, etc.) Having support from the community not only helps your budget, it builds your hackathon with local credibility and connections, and turns it into a community event.
8. Plan Activities Beyond Coding
Although coding is front and center, please also include workshops, keynote speakers, and fun breaks to create an enjoyable environment for everyone. Introductory sessions on topics like design thinking, pitching, or how to use GitHub could be useful for newbies. Icebreakers, quizzes, or a music break (sometimes just dancing and relaxing) keep the energy up and fun. All these activities provide an overall enjoyable experience making it inviting for coders and non-coders alike. It would also be great to ensure that students leave this event learning something new—no matter the outcome.
9. Set Judging and Prize Criteria
Keep it positive and clear about how you will judge efforts. What do you want to focus on—social impact, creativity, execution, and teamwork? If you were to judge them, do you want to have a "best overall" list or specific awards for items like "Best UI", "Most Sustainable", or "Community Favorite"? Think about after the event and what you want to give participants. Or how you can give all participants some certificate or swag to boost motivation. Prizes do not need to cost a lot of money. You could offer internships, mentorships, books, or plug the next shiny tech item. Any priz(es) should have a supporting tone, it just cannot focus on the "best" product. Celebrate the efforts or the learning.
10. Gather Feedback and Share Outcomes
Following the event, circulate feedback forms to all participants, mentors, and judges asking what went well and what can be improved. Share photos and winning projects on your social media channels and reflect on the experience. If you can share impact stories - elements of the projects that truly stood out, what the students learned or to what or whom the students formed collaborations with, that is bonus material. Documenting impact while celebrating success will help you to not only build a sustainable legacy but also help to repeat or scale fast for a future event. As always, keep the energy flowing and begin planning for next time!
A hackathon for social good isn't just a tech event—it’s a wave of young changemakers creating for impact. With some planning, teamwork and a purpose-driven approach, high school students can lead meaningful change. Hackathons can be a fantastic way to foster learning for critical thinking, collaboration, and leadership, not to mention, solving real problems. Even if your end product doesn't work out as expected, the learning opportunities and connections will be priceless. Start small, think big, take action and inspire young people to create for the good of our world, each project, one by one.
FAQs
1. Do I need to have coding skills to be involved?
Not really! There are often designers, researchers, and storytellers needed on the teams too. You can always learn the basics, while also providing valuable contributions in other ways.
2. How do I find teammates if I don't have any?
There are usually team formation types of events or some online platform where you can join others with similar interests.
3. What if my idea is not fully formed?
That's totally fine! Hackathons are an opportunity to be creative and experiment! Its about collaboration, learning and innovating - not perfection!
4. Can doing this help with college?
Yes! Whether organizing or attending socially responsible hackathons takes leadership initiative, and shows a commitment to helping others and invoking meaningful change.
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