My company held its second Hackathon last week, when (most) regular work pauses or slows down, so we can instead focus on new ideas aligned to our mission.1We still need to work with customers, provide support, and generally keep the lights on. But anyone who wants to participate can always find the time to do so. We get to explore and build, play around, meet new people, and add to our general culture of inquisitiveness, curiosity, and hard work.
I used it as an opportunity to get back to my curriculum roots. I ran text adventure Math Jams in our online classroom for three years in the same fashion I do with OHAC. The main difference is I’m working with around 200 students who are voting on what to do—it gets chaotic.
It’s been over two years since I ran one of these sessions, so I took the week to brainstorm ideas with some people. The most recent adventure I ran, Casework, is full of company-specific easter eggs and takes place in a loose approximation of our old headquarters. This new adventure, Casework 2: Overwhelming Evidence, follows that up.
I’ve attached the text adventure document, along with the video I created for the final project presentation. It was incredibly fun to work on.
- 1We still need to work with customers, provide support, and generally keep the lights on. But anyone who wants to participate can always find the time to do so.