Informatinio mąstymo įtraukimas į informatikos konkursą: Probleminis sprendimas ir lyčių skirtumai
Introducing computational thinking through a contest on informatics: Problem-solving and gender issues

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the issue of pupils’ cognitive abilities on computational thinking and problem solving in the annually organized contest Bebras on informatics (computer science) and computer fluency. Running the contest for more than ten years in various countries, we have noticed that the pupils (and their teachers) consider the contest activity very engaging and exciting as well as the learning experience in computational thinking and problem solving. The Bebras contest is a medium to involve pupils of all grades (the Bebras contest is developed to be run in five age groups from the primary to upper secondary school) in task solving activities. The crucial point of the contest is questions (tasks): they focus mainly on the informatics concepts, they are short, attractive, and answerable in a few minutes; half of them have the multiple-choice answers and the other half have interactive components (solving by dragging, clicking, sorting, etc.). The performance of the Bebras contest in more than 40 countries during the last years has shown a high acceptance by school students at any level. It also involves a fairly high number of female participants. In the paper, we are going to discuss about how girls and boys have solved the tasks within different age groups, whether there are any differences or similarities, and what particular tasks are (if there are such) for girls and boys.

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