Students from middle schools in Bedford Borough will gather at Cranfield University on Friday 19 June at 2:00pm to find out if they have won the Bedford BCS Challenge, organised by the Bedford branch of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, together with Bedford Borough Council.

Over a hundred Year 7 and 8 students from local schools took part. The 20 teams who took up the challenge were asked to do the following tasks:

• Year 7: Use Scratch to illustrate the hardware and software components that make up computer systems, how they communicate with one another/ other systems
• Year 8: Use Alice to produce a game which supports student learning in another curriculum subject. Use a blogger to reflect on highs and lows of the project as it develops

Dr Ip-Shing Fan, Chair of the BCS Bedford Branch, said:

"The aim of the competition is to help get schoolchildren interested in computer science and encourage them to use computers creatively. The response had been great and we've had some absolutely superb entries. It's fantastic to be working with local schools and potentially inspiring students to consider careers in the IT profession."

Students have been judged on their creativity; how they selected, used, combined and presented images and text; the appropriate choice and use of programming instructions and software; the clarity of the finished presentation in demonstrating the topic.

Prizes will be presented by Detective Superintendent Jon Gilbert, Force Authorising Officer, Bedfordshire Police, who is responsible for cybersecurity locally.

D/Supt Gilbert said:

"Initiatives like this are absolutely vital to educating young people about computer science and not only the risks, but also the positive benefits, associated with the growing cyber world. At Bedfordshire Police we already work very closely with schools to share knowledge and understanding about the threats posed by cyber-crime so that they can use technology in positive ways, such as those devised by the competition winners today. This kind of work could well inspire the police digital investigators of the future."

Prizes which include trophies, medals and electronic coding kits will be awarded at Cranfield University. The BCS Bedford Challenge is also supported by TNMOC (The National Museum of Computing) and Pilgrim Learning Teaching School Alliance.

Photo opportunity details:

Time - 2:00pm ahead of the announcement at 3:00pm
Location - Forum, Whittle Building (52), Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL

The event will showcase the submissions and the winners will be presented with prizes.

Confirmation of Attendance

Please confirm your attendance in advance with either: Ip-Shing Fan: I.S.Fan@cranfield.ac.uk Lisa.Ryder@mybiddenham.com or Jacqueline.Emkes@mybiddenham

For further information

Amanda Matheson
Press Officer
BCS The Chartered Institute for IT
First Floor, Block D, North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1FA
Telephone +44 (0) 1793 417 417 | Direct Dial: +44 (0) 1793 417 625 |
amanda.matheson@hq.bcs.org.uk | www.bcs.org