Academic Excellence 

Tournament of Minds (TOM) 

Our Academic Excellence students recently took part in the Tournament of Minds (TOM), competition. 

For six weeks, our five teams worked tirelessly to tackle the unique challenges, diving into research, crafting scripts, designing props and costumes, all to bring together a polished, creative ten-minute performance showcasing their hard work and creativity.

Time flew by as they poured effort and teamwork into every stage of preparation. Each team collaborated exceptionally well, combining their individual strengths and talents to tackle complex challenges and create something truly impressive.

On Saturday, 6 September, our five enthusiastic but nervous teams (and four equally nervous teachers!) arrived at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup for Judging Day. The students presented their innovative solutions to challenges in STEM, The Arts, or Social Sciences, performing in front of a panel of judges.

For many students, this was their first time participating in such a competition—and they did an outstanding job. What was even more heartening was the way they supported one another throughout the day, creating a strong sense of team spirit.

The judges had lots of glowing feedback for our teams—and we’re especially proud to share that two of our STEM teams received special Merit Awards!

We commend all our teams for their dedication and creativity, and we’re already looking forward to next year’s competition!

Thank you to Ms Gillham, Mrs Gray and Mr Levy for taking on the role of being facilitators for the teams, the guidance you have shown the teams has been invaluable. And to our wonderful staff who supported the students in many ways.

Let’s hear from our teams:

STEM 1

We are St Norbert's STEM Team 1 – One of St Norbert’s three participating STEM teams in the Tournament of Minds competition. During this six-week project we worked on a presentation that we would show to a group of judges who would access our creativity, teamwork and the presentation itself. Five other group members and I worked hard to prepare for everything, and it wasn’t always easy. We ran into many obstacles to overcome and time really didn’t seem to be on our side. In the face of all this we persevered and continued to break away at all the deadlines (even if we did miss a few of them). We all learnt about teamwork and time usage but most importantly we were able to have this incredible experience. When the time came to present, we took all our hard work and gave them everything we had, and I couldn’t be prouder of our team. While we didn’t make it to finals we did receive a merit award.

Samuel Amhaz Yr 7

STEM 2

Tournament of Minds went well overall, and our team was happy with how we worked together on the day. We managed to present our solution in the STEM challenge clearly and showed good teamwork and creativity to solve the Re-union challenge. Our team had to create a 3D emblem with four interlocking parts representing the Earth’s spheres (land, air, water, and living things), show how they have broken apart, and then reassemble them in a new, stronger form to symbolise restored balance. We had to also present a scale diagram and a short video (under 60 seconds) explaining the cause of the breakdown and the meaning of the new arrangement. Everything went according to plan, except the LED lights we used, which didn’t work even though they had worked just before in our last-minute practice. Even though that was frustrating, we kept the show going and the judges understood that technology is a pain. In the end, we were proud of how we handled the challenge and enjoyed the experience as we also did very good in our spontaneous challenge.

Yuvraj Sharma Yr7

STEM3

TOM, a wild rollercoaster of deadlines, rehearsals, teamwork and props. TOM, a safe, group space to show our skills and thrive in the areas we most enjoy: academics, improvisation and STEM. TOM, a hurricane of emotion over a 6-week period. TOM, an experience that I would wholly recommend to any student! The Tournament of Minds challenge was a sure challenge for our team to face, our brains and bodies were pushed to the limit, writing scripts, designing emblems and props, practicing spontaneous challenges, pushing harder than we ever have to meet strict deadlines, and rehearsals, lots of rehearsals. Over this 6 week period, our team worked together, under the guide of our awesome supervisor Mrs Gillham (who just so happens to be a bit of a TOM expert herself), and, not without difficulties such as size issues with our emblem, which would have been way too small had we not adapted and used our own bodies, we were able to successfully produce an extended challenge performance, and absolutely thrive in the spontaneous challenge task, thanks to all the practices we did with Mrs Cardenia. The TOM challenge day was amazing, and we truly got to showcase our skills and our dedication to the task through our performances. The whole day ran smoothly, until… drama at the long challenge: our costumes were quite impressive; we had wrapped LED lights around our bodies that would signify which sphere each member represented, and during our test and warm-up, they worked perfectly, but little did we know just how unreliable technology could be! During the extended performance, chaos erupted, lights didn’t work, some were off completely, others flickering and changing colour at random intervals, remotes and batteries falling out of pockets and flying everywhere, but, our dedication to our practice meant that even though our costumes may have let us down, our acting skills and punchlines really hit well with the audience and the judges, and we walked away from the challenge with happy hearts, and a merit from the judges. If anyone were thinking of joining the TOM challenge, I would strongly encourage them to, but I will say three things: strive to meet the deadlines your teachers have set (they are there for a reason, and that is to make TOM easier for you), memorise your script lines (the performances just look so much more polished if no one forgets what they have to say), and develop some volcano tissues for the lithosphere, as we don’t want another Pompeii incident (ahem lithosphere!).

Luke Swan Yr8

ARTS

Our team did the Arts challenge, where we presented past and present artists along with a collage and song to display a message of global unity. We were all different artists from different countries and time periods, and we came together to form one beautiful artwork. I think our team went well; we had some challenges but in the end we worked as a team and presented well. The whole experience was really fun and we learnt a lot; I would definitely do it again next year! I think we could further improve our performance, which is something I will look forward to doing next year. 

Anushka Krautmann Yr8

Social Sciences

The Tournament of Minds was a great experience for our whole team. Our group chose the Social Sciences challenge, TOMmunity, where we had to create a community centre and choose two sites to build it on. 

During the six weeks we got to plan, make and just be creative. It was the best because there wasn’t anyone standing in our way to say you can’t do that or that’s too big of a gesture. 

Although we didn’t get the result we were hoping for the day was super fun! But the rain was our biggest enemy. It got everything plus ourselves wet. Overall, the Tournament of Minds was a great experience. 

Poppy Agius Yr7

Mrs L Cardenia

(Academic Excellence Coordinator)