Extension Programs

Accelium Mind Olympics 2020

Last term, a team of Year 7 and Year 8 students represented Aitken College in the 2020 International Accelium Olympics. Our school was one of 30 schools in Australia invited to compete in this global event. The Olympics was made up of a series of challenges in the form of game-based scenarios that students had to solve as efficiently as possible. The scores of all students at Aitken College were combined and set against schools from around the world. In this online tournament, our students had the opportunity to flex their critical thinking skills with great results, placing them 18th out of 107 participating schools in the world. Aitken College was also placed the 2nd highest from the participating Australian Schools. We congratulate our students on their brilliance!

Below are student reflections on the tournament:

Competing in the Accelium Olympics was a joyful ride. We learnt many strategies on how to complete the levels and took note of the key patterns over time. It was a struggle at first, but after much trial and error, we started to get the hang of it. We gained many skills throughout the experience, which we hadn’t had before. Overall, the Accelium Olympics was a great experience and if we had another opportunity in competing, we most certainly would.

Alex M and Jay P (7K)

Last term our school participated in a worldwide interschool online competition, the Accelium Olympics. It was a competition where you played three strategy based games with 60 levels in total. I really enjoyed working out strategies for each game and completing the challenge levels. I came third in our school and overall our school placed 18th on the world ladder.

Suveer C (7C)

I feel extremely privileged to have been able to take part in this unique competition. I was determined to try my hardest to lead Aitken College to victory. I worked hard to get the best possible results I could, and helped bring the school to 18th place worldwide and 2nd place Australia wide! As well as being exciting and educational, this contest has been a truly unique experience. 

Aoide A (8S)

I don’t typically enjoy doing Maths. However, despite being a competition based on Mathematics and logic, I really loved taking part in the various activities and challenges presented in the Accelium Olympics and enjoyed the game-like aspects of this competition. I would encourage everyone else to utilise their capabilities and take part in this competition.

Johann M (8M)

This year, I was fortunate enough to be part of the Aitken Accelium Olympics team. This gave me a great opportunity to extend my problem-solving and critical thinking skills by solving different games on a variety of levels which was educational and fun at the same time. I practised thinking outside the box and challenged myself to consider all the possibilities and routes so that the opponent couldn’t win. At the start of the Accelium Olympics, these skills weren’t as efficient and I often failed to complete the levels in the most efficient way. However, after lots of practise on the different levels and games which were challenging at the start, I could see the improvement which I had made as those difficult challenges had become easier. This has benefited me in being able to solve more complex problems and to think in a more efficient way after this event.

Andy F (8S)

My experience of the Accelium Olympics was great! I had lots of fun learning something at each level and I like how it challenged me to think outside the box. Overall, it was great and creative experience to be part of.

Peter D (7B)

Mrs Mary Ann Di Martino

Head of Faculty Extension Programs