Rewarding You!

It’s been a few weeks since the High School Challenge started, but Nick and I want to reward our team members for completing courses. So, we’re going to have a little competition within our team, with 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place for the most units completed. Winners get a Chase Visa gift card, which will be sent via email. 1^st receives a $50 gift card, 2^nd gets a $35 gift card, and 3^rd receives a $25 gift card.* These cards can be used online and internationally at places that accept Visa debit cards (https://www.chasegiftcard.com/index.cfm?pageid=g04&%%sessiontoken%% #12).

Just to clarify, Udacity admins say they send us the units each member completed, so the amount that they send us is what will count for this contest, so you may want to check with them to make sure which units you have completed for our team (I don't know if they send leaders total units you've done, or just those completed while on our team). Make sure you are completing each unit 100%. We use the number of units completed that Udacity sends to us as the number completed for this 

Do not cheat by looking at the answers before answering the questions yourselves just to get through units. If you are flagged for cheating by Udacity, you will be ineligible for this competition.

*In the case of a tie, gift card amounts will be split equally.

Unit Progress

To check if your unit counts for a point, just make sure each unit is 100% complete on the progress page for that specific course. It's at the link bar at the top of each respective course:

• Overview
• Classroom
• Discussion
• Wiki
• Announcements
• Progress

The % correct doesn't necessarily have to be 100% though.


This is from a TA on the CS101 discussion forums -- "Completed unit is a unit where you have all green checkmarks, so, if you have couple of yellow dots, go back and watch them to complete the unit. It's ok, if you got some quizzes wrong, what counts is that you tried. Team members should list their full names, as far as I know."

About

You're probably reading this because you've already joined the team, or somehow found out about us. Anyway, here's a little about us, Udacity, and this high school challenge.

I am Liezl Puzon, and my co-leader is Nick Lum. We both go to Freehold High School in Freehold, NJ. He goes to the Computer Science Academy and I go to the Medical Sciences Learning Center (but we both participate in our school's American Computer Science League). Last year and this year, I placed first in regular season and he placed second (just a point away). We are leading this team for a high school challenge directed by Udacity.com. I could potentially win a trip to Stanford. All we have to do is organize a team of as many people as we can, and when a team member (who can be any age) finishes a course unit, they score a point for our team.
 

You don't have to be in high school to join the team.

To sign up:
1. Create an account with your full name on Udacity.com
2. Confirm your account through your email.
3. Click this link: http://www.udacity.com/hschallenge/team/join/agpzfnVkYWNpdHl1cg0LEgRVc2VyGK3jnQUM

It really only takes a moment of your time! Then you will have an account and any class you complete before August 26th will count towards our team total. There is no pressure, and if you can't complete a course that is perfectly fine. It won't hurt our team or anything.

If you saw this please sign up and complete at least one unit of one course :)
Intro courses are pretty easy, but are good for refreshing your memory and can still teach you something new! 

Please feel free to ask any questions. I will reply! Send me questions at liezl.200@gmail.com.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More about us and Udacity:

Udacity is not just for this one challenge.

We're #2!!!

Another email from Jason Soll 

Good morning! I hope you all enjoyed your first week of the Udacity High School Challenge competition! Here are some competition updates:

-There are currently over 340 teams competing with over 1,400 students.

 Team leaders, you rock!

-Here is a list of the top 25 largest teams. Walnut High School is currently the largest with 42 team members!

1	Walnut High School
2	Team Freehold
3	Team Apex Dinosaur Helicopter
4	FlyingNinjas
5	Jusix
6	Cerebral
7	~Serendipity
8	Mighty High School Force
9	Lincroft Statement
10	WHS
11	The Nerdfighters
12	Pittsford Sutherland
13	Noe Zevallos
14	DVHS
15	Stuyvesant High School
16	Team Renaissance
17	india-IIT
18	Swagstangs
19	Team Unreal Dragon
20	Cruisers
21	Bringing Back the Flux
22	Phillips Exeter Academy
23	CatUdacity
24	Team Lotafun
25	Täisring

Although we are only 3 members behind the top team, the points from completing courses is what counts the most, and the teams ranked lower than us are probably really close behind. What we should do is step up our game. Our team is counting on you guys. 

Thank you for your participation and help!

from Jason Soll of Udacity.com

I received an email from him today, and if you are a team member, you should have received one also. But for those who are not signed up yet, here is a copy of the email:

"Dear Fellow Udacians,

Good morning! I hope you're all off to a great start with your classes. I just started Intro to Physics and Intro to Statistics. What courses did you decide to start with for the challenge?

Some people have been asking me about what it means to "complete" a unit and when you'll be able to see your team's score. We probably could have been more clear about these two things. In order to get a point for completing a unit, you must complete the entire unit and get all the questions correct. Homework problem sets also count as their own units since they require a lot of thought and hard work. You can track your progress for a course by clicking the "progress" button at the top of the page.

We're currently working on tools that will let you track your team's progress. I'll keep you posted as we get ready to give your teams these features.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Jason"

Courses Have Started!

Courses have already started but you can still join our team! www.tinyurl.com/teamfreehold
Since they are self-paced courses for the most part, you can still take them without penalty. The lectures and exercises will be available no matter what date you start.
Remember every course UNIT counts for a point, so anything you do will help out the team tremendously!

JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP AS WELL:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/437477796275202

Simplified "How to Join"

You don't have to be in high school to join the team.

To sign up:
1. Create an account with your full name on Udacity.com
2. Confirm your account through your email.
3. Click this link:
 http://www.udacity.com/hschallenge/team/join/agpzfnVkYWNpdHl1cg0LEgRVc2VyGK3jnQUM
(or tinyurl.com/teamfreehold)

Sign up for as many courses as you want. It will not hurt the team.

Every UNIT in a course gives us a point, so you don't have to finish the whole thing.