Millfield – Pupils excel in computational thinking challenge
11 Mar 2016
Millfield pupils joined students from 30 countries taking part in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge at the end of last year. In the UK, over 27,000 pupils took part in the ‘intermediate’ age group category and Millfield pupils, Max French (Year 9) and Jasper Williams (Year 9) both scored highly to finish in the top 25 nationally.
Max scored full marks, one of only 17 pupils in the country to do so and finished equal first in the competition. Jasper also did exceptionally well, scoring 189/200 and finishing equal 25th in the competition.
The Bebras Challenge is a competition aimed at raising awareness of Computer Science in a fun and rewarding way. Computational thinking involves using a set of problem-solving skills and techniques that software engineers use to write programs and apps. Examples of these techniques would include the ability to break down complex tasks into more simple components, algorithm design, pattern recognition, pattern generalisation and abstraction.