Da Vinci Decathlon
Da Vinci Decathlon
On Tuesday 30th April, eight of our Year 5 and Year 6 students represented St. Joseph's at the Da Vinci Decathlon in Korowa Anglican Girls’ School, Glen Iris. The Da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to stimulate the minds of students and further challenge them. We were one of the lucky schools to be invited to participate in the day.
The Decathlon consisted of 10 different subjects: Science, Engineering, Maths, Ideation, Legacy, Code-breaking, Creative Producers, English, Cartography and Art & Poetry. Our school competed at a Year 6 level against schools such as Caulfield Grammar School, Brighton Girls’ School, Korowa Girls’ School, and St. Joseph’s Primary School Elsternwick. Our dedicated students Sebastian, Oscar, Sophie, Jackson, Robbie, Alyssia, Lenny (Year 6), and Maximillian (Year 5) had reviewed and practised some past papers prior to the event. These students proudly represented our school and showed outstanding STAR values throughout the day.
We are very proud of our Year 5 and Year 6 student representatives as they demonstrated excellent teamwork in dividing into small groups to complete each paper and supporting one another. Teachers corrected the papers and graded the creative pieces, and I have to say, the standard of work was nothing short of impressive! I’m looking forward to many more opportunities for our students to showcase their skills and knowledge.
Ms. Edel Cleere
STEM & Performing Arts teacher
Student Reflections:
The Decathlon
By Lenny
On the 30th of April eight students from St Josephs participated in the Da Vinci Decathlon. I was one of them with Alyssia, Robbie, Maximilian, and the Stem Captains (Sophie, Oscar, Seb, and Jackson).
We competed in various subjects like Science, Engineering, Maths, English, History Cartography, and Creative Producers (Drama).
Thanks, Ms Cleere for all the organising you did to make this happen.
The Decathlon
By Sebastian
On the 30th of April Sophie, Jackson, Oscar, Seb, Lenny, Robbie, Alyssia and Maximillian went to The Da Vinci Decathlon at Korowa Girls School. It was a STEM competition for Year 5s and 6s where you versus other schools. Only certain schools like Caufield Grammer Wheelers Hill and Wesly were invited. It was a very fun and exciting experience.
There was no bus because it was early. Our parents dropped us off at the front gate where we met Miss Cleere. After everyone from St Joseph’s arrived we were taken into Korowa’s hall where we had a table for us. We were divided into groups of two or three and each group did a different subject. The room was a very large room with a stage and a bunch of circular tables in it, and every once in a while, some girls would pop their heads in the room.
In the first block, we had four subjects to do: English, Science, Ideology and Creative Producers. It was like a big IQ test.
After that session which was about 1 hour and 40 minutes long, we had a decent break outside where we could eat and run around. Their outside area was a quite big grassed area. During the break, everyone was talking about how well this was going. It has been AMAZING so far. After chilling for a while we were called back in.
Then in our second block, we had Engineering, Maths, and Cartography. Maths and cartography had 1hr 40min and Engineering had 1hr. They were harder than everything else so far. And more brain-frying!
Finally, we had our last tests which were Code-breaking and History. History wasn't very fun, I can tell you that first hand. After we finished our last pages, we were called out to have lunch so the teachers could mark papers and count the scores. That break was stressful!
After that stressful break was over, we were called in again and they announced the winners and unfortunately, we didn’t win anything this year, sadly. Caulfield Grammar, Wheelers Hill did very well.
A special thank you to Ms Cleere for helping run the Da Vinci Decathlon.
The Da Vinci Decathlon
By Robbie
What’s the Decathlon?:
On Tuesday, 30th of April the STEM Captains (Sophie, Jackson, Oscar and Seb), Lenny, Robbie, Alyssia, and Maximillian went to The Da Vinci Decathlon at Korowa Girls School.
It was a STEM competition for Years 5 and 6 ( and a 7 & 8 version) where you competed against other schools with a new topic for each year. This year it was Utopia!
It was a very exciting and fun experience. We were divided into groups of two or three and each group did a different subject.
The activities:
In the first block, we had four subjects to do: English, Creative Producers, Science and Ideology.
Then in our second block, we had Engineering, Maths, Cartography, and Art and Poetry.
Finally, we had our last tests which were code-breaking and Legacy.
Opinion part:
We all liked the DaVinci Decathlon although there were mixed reactions about the topic of Utopia with some liking it and others not.
The Decathlon
By Oscar A
On the 30th of April, the STEM Captains (Sophie, Jackson, Oscar, Seb) and Lenny, Robbie, Alyssia, and Maximillian went to The Da Vinci Decathlon at Korowa Girls School. It was a STEM competition for Year 5s and 6s where you versus other schools. It was very exciting and it was a fun experience.
In our first block, we had Science, English, Ideology and Creative Producers. They went on for 1 hour and 30 minutes after
that we went out for a play and had lunch.The Decathlon has been pretty fun for everyone.
Then in our second block, we had Engineering, Maths, art and poetry and cardiography Engineering went for 45 minutes, art and poetry for 1 hour and maths and cardiography went for 1 hour and 30 minutes. After that, we had a play and lunch. Their school is very nice. We had a chance to chill outside.
In our third and final block, we had code-breaking, legacy, and history. We did that for 1 hour and 30 minutes and then we had one last play. It was very long and then they announced the winners. Sadly we did not win anything. Before we knew it, it was home time and everyone had loved it.
Da Vinci Decathlon
By Jackson
The Da Vinci decathlon is a multi-work and multi-school activity with tons of different subjects.
The subjects include Maths, Science, Ideology, Engineering, English, Creative Producers, Art and Poetry, Legacy, and Code Breaking - all of these were super fun!
In the first block, we had English, Science, Creative Producers, and Ideology, and we had 1 hour and 30 minutes to finish them. We did and handed them in.
In the next block, we did Engineering, Art and Poetry, and Maths. We only had 1 hour if you were doing Engineering and 1 hour 15 minutes if you were doing Art and Poetry and you had 1 hour 30 minutes for Maths.
The next subjects we had to do were Legacy and Code Breaking. We had 1 hour 30 minutes for that. Legacy is History if you did not know and we ended the day with awards. we did not win any though.
The Da Vinci Decathlon
By Sophie
On the 30th May Sophie, Lenny, Alyssia, Robbie, Maximilian, Oscar, Seb and Jackson went to The Da Vinci Decathlon. The Decathlon is a STEM competition for years five and six, where you are competing against lots of other schools. There are 10 categories/subjects and each school is divided into groups of two or three. Then each group will cover a different subject. There were: Science, Ideology, Maths, English, Art & Poetry, Code Breaking, Legacy (general knowledge), Creative Producers, Cartography, and Engineering.
The Da Vinci Decathlon was held at Korowa Girls School and because there weren't many students from our school, we had to each come on our own and meet Ms Cleere at reception.
Each school sat at a circular table, it was similar to an exam but we were allowed to discuss the question with our school.
There were three sessions and in between each session, they gave us time to eat and play on a grassy oval.
During the session only two teachers were allowed in the room while we were taking the test, all the other teachers were in a nearby room marking the previous test papers.
Everyone put in their best effort, it was a really fun experience and we all learned a lot.