Requirements (what you need to run this)

If you want to run a Buggy Racing project, this is what you’ll need:

• Online access
  The project has an online component, so although students can do their development work offline, both they and you will need access to the web in order to access the race server.

• Ability to host the race server
  You need to run the race server (it’s the website you and your students interact with throughout the project). If you have the technical resource to host it yourself, you can — otherwise use a hosting service in the cloud:
  • See more about self-hosting.
  • For an example of cloud-based hosting, see more about hosting on Heroku.

• Familiarity with Python, Flask, and basic SQL (and optionally Git)
  You and your staff will be guiding, teaching, and encouraring student developers — and helping debug them out of the corners they code themselves into. The application they are building (a buggy editor) is a Flask webserver connecting to a SQLite database — so you need to know your way around that.

• Students who know some Python
  See more about the students.

• Ideally, staff to help you
  It’s entirely possible to run this project alone, but the race server supports multiple staff accounts, including Teaching Assistants. See the information about user management.

• About four weeks… or more
  How long the project takes to run can vary wildly depending on the experience of your students and how thoroughly you expect them to do the work. Although we’ve run it as a way to develop students’ Python experience, it’s feasible to run this project with the focus on webdev, UX design, or version control practices instead. Also, of course, it will depend on how much time you’re expecting your students to spend on it each week.