Garden City Public Schools

Garden City Middle School is proud to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of its sixth grade Hackathon team, which earned second place overall in this year’s competition and also received first place for its Capital Display Project submitted in advance of the event.

With the team in its second year of participation, the Hackathon has quickly become a meaningful opportunity for students to showcase far more than coding skills. Throughout the experience, students worked collaboratively to problem solve, think creatively, communicate ideas and apply computational thinking in authentic ways.

The team began preparing in November 2025 and spent months working together on block-based coding, Python challenges, pixel art design and Capital Display Project development. During the competition, they navigated a live challenge map, completed coding and design tasks, solved “auto gate” puzzles to unlock opportunities and submitted projects to a panel of judges for feedback and scoring.

The team’s first-place winning Capital Display Project gave students an opportunity to express themselves through a larger creative challenge connected to this year’s theme, Ancient Egypt. In less than a week, students diverged and converged in their learning and creation, with some helping write and sing an original song, some designing individual games based on the theme, and others creating artwork and animations that supported the story. Each participant was able to showcase their individual interests and strengths while also contributing to one cohesive final project. With support from ideas built on the work of the previous year’s Hackathon team, students connected their pieces through a shared storyline, and the final project was submitted by the team captain to be judged by a panel of KidOYO mentors.

A standout part of the team’s success was its strong collaboration. Students contributed in different ways, from coding game elements to designing original pixel art sprites and animations used during the competition. Their teamwork, persistence and creativity played a major role in helping the team capture five territories during the event, with student-created artwork helping secure two of those wins.

The Hackathon team was led by team captain Benjamin Collins and supported by student team members Kylie Chean, Ethan Cheng, Christian Leon, Henry Schinn, Lebao Tao, Launy Zhong and Pantelis Zografos. The group was coached by Mrs. Danielle Scibelli and Mrs. Nadine Wenger, with support from Mr. Michael Davola, who helped the team prepare in the final stages leading up to the competition.

The district is incredibly proud of these students for their hard work, dedication and growth. Their success reflects the power of innovation, teamwork and student-driven learning, and Garden City looks forward to building on this momentum in the future.