This is a message from Peter Wakker from the Computer Olympiad in South Africa

“Are you aware that apart from the Applications Olympiad and Programming Olympiad, we also run the Talent Search? The Talent Search is intended to identify, encourage, and develop computational thinking; the skill needed in Maths, Science, IT and CAT. http://www.olympiad.org.za/talent-search/ 

Computational Skills

How many learners at your schools have strong computational skills?  How does that compare to learners in other countries? What are computational skills?  The skills to think logically to solve problems.  Skills needed in Maths, Science, IT and CAT. Sample tests are available at http://challenge.beaver.org.za, click on the “Challenges” tab at the top right.

Talent Search

To identify and develop computational skills we offer Talent Search at the following levels.

Junior (Grades 6 and7)               Senior (Grades 10 and 11)

Intermediate (Grades 8 and 9)     Elite (Grade 12 and above)

The challenge attracted around a million participants from 40 countries in 2014.

What is involved?

· 15 tasks to complete in 45 minutes

· No marking at all if you use the online version

· Simple marking if using the pen-and-paper version

· A choice between Afrikaans and English versions

What does a school get?

· Certificates for No 1, 2 and 3 in the school

· Certificates for No 1 in each grade

· Scholarship opportunities for selected learners

· Detailed analyses and comparison if using the online version

· National results if using the pen-and-paper version

· All participating schools will receive a PDF booklet which explains how each task can be solved and how each task is linked to Computational Thinking and Informatics.

FREE!

Participation is free, but remember a sponsor pays, so please do not waste the opportunity.

You can find more information at www.olympiad.org.za“