Elementary and high school students from all over Brazil who stood out this year in the Brazilian Informatics Olympiad (OBI) are gathered at Unicamp to participate in Olympic Week, a special course that offers theoretical and practical activities to deepen programming knowledge. Classes are held at the Computing Institute (IC) from the University. In total, 91 students from the 6th year of Elementary School to the 3rd year of High School participate in this week's edition.
The contents are defined based on the modalities in which OBI students competed. Students in Initiation 1 and 2, who compete in logic tests in the Olympiad, participate in introductory programming courses. Competitors in Junior Programming, 1 and 2, who need to have specific knowledge in programming, algorithms and data structures, take advanced programming classes. According to Ricardo Anido, professor at IC and coordinator of OBI, the idea is that the week will encourage students to continue their studies and continue participating in the Olympics. "The focus is: the student who doesn't know programming, learns and arrives next year participating in the next higher category. Even if he continues in elementary school, the idea is that they will progress, so that they learn as soon as possible the programming techniques they need to reach the international Olympics", explains the professor.
In addition to in-depth classes, the week is also selecting students for the international stages of the competition. Throughout the program, students who won medals in the Level 2 Programming modality compete for 10 places in the Ibero-American Informatics and Computing Competition (CIIC) and, the first four placed in the selectives, win places for the International Informatics Olympiad (IOI) 2020, which will take place in Singapore between the 19th and 26th of July. The results will be released this Friday (6).
Computing present in schools
OBI is a competition promoted by the Brazilian Computing Society (SBC) and organized by Unicamp. The proposal is to stimulate interest in computing in primary school students and work on skills such as logical reasoning and ingenious thinking to solve problems. Ricardo Anido says that one of the main objectives is to expand the presence of computing in classes and activities carried out in schools. "We made a big effort to put computing in the official school curriculum, starting from Elementary School. We held many meetings at the National Education Council and managed to put some things in the High School curriculum, which is starting to be implemented now, so there are something. We would like it to be more, but it is already something", comments the professor.
He also explains that working with computing not only adds specific knowledge to students, but also stimulates skills that are important in other areas. "A difference that has been noticed over the years is what we call computational reasoning, which is the organization of ideas so that their solution can be more easily carried out by a computer, and with that you can optimize things. Today Nowadays you really need this type of organization, to put together a spreadsheet, to do some calculations, this skill is necessary and involves a little programming. But it is a skill like any other, like learning a foreign language or studying music, that stimulates other areas of the brain. That's why we think it's important, like everything else, but it doesn't have any space in schools", he argues.
Another advantage for competitors is the possibility of applying for Olympic places to enroll in Unicamp's undergraduate courses. Through it, students who stand out in knowledge olympiads can get a place at university without having to take the entrance exam. OBI results can be used to apply for placements in courses in Computer Science, Statistics, Information Systems, Technology in Systems Analysis and Development and Civil, Computer, Control and Automation, Transport, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. The places reserved for competing students and the selection criteria vary between courses. You can get more information on the Comvest.
Students from all over the country
Through the computers in the IC laboratories, students from all over the country exchanged experiences while learning new lessons about vectors and programming principles. Camila Shida (11) came from Bastos, in the interior of São Paulo, and was excited to discover all the possibilities that the world of information technology can offer. "Since I was little, I've done things related to logic. It's my first time, we're really learning a lot! It's going to give us a lot of experience for the future", says the girl.
Among those who came from far away, Ana Júlia Costa (12) brought from Fortaleza the expectation of learning more about the subject and the awareness that it is a promising field for the future. "I've always liked logic, but programming I've never pursued. I want to study it, because it seems like something that opens up a lot more possibilities in various things, because studying opens up a lot of possibilities, now I think programming opens up more. It's very interesting, The classes are really good, and in practice that's when I learn the most." Asked if she wants to return in the coming years, she doesn't hide her expectations, despite knowing it won't be easy. "Yes, I do... I'll try, right?", she laughs happily.
