American Computer Science League

Newsletter Final

June 2007

 

ALL-STAR CONTEST

Congratulation to all the teams that qualified to compete at the ALL-STAR Contest and to the high scorers at the contest. It is truly amazing that these students can problem solve and program so many problems in so little time. Further, congratulations to those students who got a perfect score on a very difficult and long short answer round set of questions.

 

A big thank you to Patricia Scherer, the host advisor at Taylor HS in Houston, for the great job she and her staff did in hosting the 2007 All-Star Contest. Every contest presents a different set of problems because of building and administrative constraints and every year the host school advisor comes up with very creative ways to overcome those constraints. This year was no exception. As an example the host school rolled in a power source with multiple outlets so that teams needing computers could check those computers right in the registration area. All problems were resolved before teams went to their assigned rooms.

Also, a big thank you to all the teams that traveled to Houston to compete. Advisors give up a long weekend and students give up family time on a holiday weekend to compete. ACSL hopes that the experience was worthwhile. This is especially true for those teams that came from Romania and Croatia. ACSL welcomes the international flavor that those teams bring to the contest.

 

ACSL WEB SITE

The ACSL web site is updated to show all the team scores from the ALL-STAR Contest. The page also gives a list of all those students who had a perfect score on the short answer round of the contest. The ALL-STAR Contest standings are posted at www.acsl.org. The link is in the table with the "new" icon at the bottom of the page.

 

ALL-STAR QUESTION SET

An e-mail message with the questions used at the All-Star Contest was sent to all teams. If you did not get them, please write to ACSL.

 

AWARDS

The award plaques for the team and individual winners from the regular season geographic regions will be mailed soon to those teams not at the ALL-STAR Contest.

 

NEW ACSL EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS

At the advisor's meeting held at the ALL-STAR Contest, an announcement was made that the ACSL staff was seeking assistance in running the contest. Three long time ACSL advisors came forward and it appears that they will be joining the ACSL Executive Board. Marc Brown, Janice Meegan and Jerry Tebrow will continue to serve on the ACSL Executive Board but in somewhat different roles. The names of the new Executive Board members will be announced when plans are finalized. Don't be surprised when you get an ACSL e-mail message from someone other than Jerry Tebrow.

 

REFERRALS

As you meet teachers at summer meetings on computer science or meet other computer science teachers this summer, please direct them to the ACSL web site. Hopefully they will see the same value in our contest that you do. Also encourage them to write to ACSL with any questions. As you know, ACSL always answers questions quickly. Thanks in advance for any such referrals.

 

ACSL 2008

The site for the ACSL 2008 ALL-STAR Contest is almost finalized. The site will be announced in September. Please watch for the ACSL registration form that will be sent in September. Again, please share it with a teacher in another school in and out of your district. Have a great summer.