Computational Thinking Challenge

Students from Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School were finalists in a computing challenge at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford

BRGS students David, Jenson, Louie and Dylan were invited to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford on the weekend of 10­–11 February as finalists in a UK-wide computing competition – The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge.

Reaching the final round of the Challenge is an impressive achievement, as 71,146 students entered the first round for the Intermediate age group (12–14) and 41,372 students entered the first round for the Junior age group (10–12). David, Jenson, Louie, and Dylan were among the top 60 highest achieving students invited to the final rounds in their age groups, and were presented with their finalist’s certificates at prizegiving ceremonies at Hertford College.

The UK BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, supported by Google, is designed to get students excited about computing and computational thinking. It is a problem-solving contest with questions inspired by topics in computer science. In the first round, held in their own schools, students have to try and solve as many problems as possible in the allotted time. There are six age categories. The highest scoring students from the four oldest age groups (Elite, Senior, Intermediate, and Junior) were then invited to the Department of Computer Science at Oxford for the finals over two weekends in January and February.