From:

Dr Therese Keane, Lecturer in ICT Skills Development, Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, Swinburne University

We are pleased to offer the first official Bebras event in the first two weeks of September.

Earlier this year we ran a pilot of the Bebras competition and this was well received nationally.

I would like to invite you and your students to participate in the Bebras – Computational Thinking Challenge.

It is a free, school based, online competition, done under the teacher supervision within an hour (45-60 minutes). Students can participate individually or in small groups (up to 4), and collaboration and sharing during the challenge is encouraged. No prior computing or ICT knowledge is required. Teachers can select when they want to hold the competition within the first two weeks of September. Bebras can ideally be held in either IT or Maths classes.

This Challenge is open to students from Grade 3 – right through to Year 12 – with age appropriate categories.

This contest was created in Lithuania in 2004 and has already spread all around the world. The Lithuanian name Bebras – in English “beaver” – is connected with the hard-working, intelligent, goal seeking and lively animal living around lakes and rivers in Lithuania and other countries. It is an international initiative to promote informatics among school students of all ages.

The online challenge asks small, interesting questions that can be answered with no prior knowledge about informatics or computer science but are related to informatics concepts and require thinking about information, computation, data processing and so on.

I have provided a link with more information about Bebras and the link to some sample tasks (www.bebras.edu.au). If you need more information – please contact enquiry@digitalcareers.edu.au