I wanted to let you know about a UK computing competition that’s taking place in November. Â The Beaver Computing Challenge (BCC) introduces computer science to students. It is designed to get students excited about computing. Â There are four competitions. Unlike many other competitions this is suitable for students of all abilities:
- KS5: Students in years 12 & 13 — Scottish S5 and S6
- KS4: Students in years 10 & 11 — Scottish S3 and S4
- Intermediate: Students in years 8 & 9 — Scottish S1 and S2
- Junior: Students in years 6 & 7 — Scottish P6 and P7
The contest is completed online in schools under the supervision of teachers in any 45 minute period during the week of November 11, 201. There are 15 multiple-choice questions.  The BCC is a problem solving contest with a focus on computational and logical thinking. Questions are inspired by topics in computer science but only require some basic reasoning ability. Connections to Computer Science are described in the solutions to all past contests.
Schools register online. The deadline is 27th October, 2013.
For the UK’s first year there is sponsorship allowing FREE access to all schools. Please note this to allow a thorough evaluation of the system and brief feedback from School Coordinators may well be sought after the event. In future years a nominal fee per student will be needed..
