Contests and challenges effectively teach software development and spark computer science interest. This presentation shows how structured competitions foster motivation, critical thinking, and technical skills. We'll spotlight East Metro STEAM Partnership's "The Edit," a digital storytelling contest where middle and high schoolers create 90-second news reports on relevant topics with Adobe tools. These contests reinforce programming concepts, build community, fuel creativity, and promote teamwork. We'll share best practices for designing them as gateways to computer science and explore in- and out-of-class uses. Educators will gain strategies to inspire the next wave of developers and computer scientists.
