When RocketHour decided to host an AI-assisted coding competition during the July school holidays, it aimed to explore how AI changes the way we teach and how accessible it makes complex tasks for younger students.
And it demonstrated that 90 11-to-13 year-olds, a dash of creativity, loads of curiosity, professional development tools, a few coding languages and a relatively open brief showed that quite a lot can be accomplished in five short days.
John Naiker, CEO of RocketHour, comments: “Our young people are trapped in consumption cycles but lack opportunities to build, make, tinker and experiment. This matters, because the AI age will put a premium on those who can create and think differently, not just consume content.
“We want to teach timeless principles that will support kids throughout their lives. Things like: can you communicate your ideas well? How do you approach problems? What tools do you have to think creatively? Foundational ideas and skills that will remain important and that we want to find new ways to teach. AI is one of those ways.”
The challenge is known as the RocketHour AI CodeQuest. It takes students with little to no coding knowledge, immerses them in a learning environment with tutors and AI coding assistants for five days, and asks them to build a website that meets a need they’ve identified. No templates or predetermined results.
The outcome: 90 unique, professional-quality websites showing that assumptions about age don’t hold, that AI can enhance (rather than hinder) critical thinking, and that building beats consuming.
“We prioritised the problem-solving process, clear communication, creative presentation and critical evaluation of AI inputs during the CodeQuest,” says Naicker. “We wanted to see how creative our students could be if given a powerful AI tool. We wanted to see if, by teaching them with AI, we could actually increase their creativity, curiosity and motivation to learn.”
He adds: “The magic of learning with AI is that iteration becomes easier and that makes kids feel more confident to keep trying, keep learning and keep pushing the boundaries.”
The results show just how far kids can go with the right support.
Participants came up with websites that tackled issues like cyber-bullying, educational platforms to teach their peers about local wildlife, community-focused platforms to bring people together to do in-person events and activities, and an educational underwater game.
Choosing winners was tricky. First prize went to Loïc Raemaekers, 11, who developed a website called Cape Town Kids Safari – an interactive site designed to make wildlife education accessible to kids, particularly those in under-resourced communities. Loïc’s site features an interactive zoomable map with nearly 50 local species, scavenger hunts, species cards, games, practical conservation activities and more.
“I was so nervous when I first learnt that I got into CodeQuest because there was so much software to learn: from VS Code to Netlify. But after 10 days, here I am rocking it, and I have my own website! I learnt a lot but mostly I realised that AI is only as creative as your prompt. So you need to be imaginative and not be a robot,” he says.
Second place winner Sarah Addae, 13, developed an education site – Climate Countdown – that teaches kids about climate change, its effects, and practical solutions. It has interactive content like quizzes, games, and information sections that help users learn about the environment in an engaging, fun and creative way.
“I thought that to be able to make really cool websites like the ones we made, you needed to be coding since the day you were born, or at least be part of some extravagant course,” she says. “I didn’t realise it was so doable for me. I guess you could say my mindset has changed because now I really feel like I can really build things, if I want to – I can do it.”