High Ability Programs and Competitions

Science and Maths competition season is well underway at Koonung! 

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) Competition

The Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) competition gives students the opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills through algorithmic thinking. The competition incorporates unique ‘three-stage tasks’ that encourage students to develop informal algorithms and apply them to test data of increasing size or complexity. Congratulations to all students who stepped up and outside of their comfort zone to give the competition a go. This year we have had 44 high ability students participated in the CAT, seeing some excellent results!

2 x high distinctions

8 x distinctions

14 x credits

Best in school awarded to Max L.

Education Perfect ANZ Maths Championship

The ANZ maths championship is a world-wide competition open to all students with an EP account. Students competed as a school team and were awarded points per number of questions answered over the course of 1 week.

Koonung Secondary college placed:

19th overall globally out of 1535 schools

13th overall in Australia out of 1099 schools

5th overall in Victoria out of 278 schools.

Individually our students put in an enormous effort in their pursuit for excellence gaining the following individual awards:

11 x credit awards (top 20% of competitors worldwide)

8 x bronze awards (top 10% of competitors worldwide)

4 x silver awards (top 5% of competitors worldwide)

5 x gold awards (top 2 % of competitors worldwide)

2 x Emerald Awards (top 1.5% of competitors worldwide)

3 x Elite awards (top 1% of competitors worldwide)

Best in school awarded to Evans S

Congratulations to all students who participated in this championship!

Oxford University Computing Challenge

The Oxford University Computing Challenge (OUCC) is a two-round competition that helps students develop skills to produce programmed solutions to computational problems. The first round is an open competition and builds on the principles used in the Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) competition. The second round is by invitation only. It is extended to students who have performed well in the first round and is used to identify suitability for the AMT’s high-performance programs.

Congratulations to all students who participated, with a special mention to:

• Jasper S who received a Merit Award
• Enoch L and Ryan L for receiving a Perfect Score  

What an achievement!

Science and Engineering Challenge (SEC) – Congratulation Winners!

On Tuesday 25 June, our team of 22 year 9 students competed against other schools from all over Melbourne in the Science and Engineering Challenge at Deakin University.

SEC is a nationwide STEM program where students compete in engaging hands-on activities involving the principles of science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). We spent an exhilarating day competing against other schools in activities such as: 

• designing an earthquake proof tower • building a bridge

• building a wind turbine• providing electricity to a city • designing a fish trap. Points were awarded based on performance and the school with the highest score at the end of the day declared winners. In a nail biter finale and with a final score of 1345.44 points, Koonung successfully took out the win! Congratulations to the whole team for showing excellent collaboration skills, showing resilience, and striving to achieve their best every step of the way! Best of luck for the state finals in Geelong on the 5th of September!

Highlights of the day include:

• Damien, Dylan and Dean developing an intricate method of communication through light pulses to take out 1st place in round 1.
• Zi, Xavier and Evan hedging their bets and successfully loading up their earthquake resistant tower with 5 weights in their final round. 
• Ryan, Ethan and Bobby breaking the SEC record in their effectiveness of connecting a city with electricity.
• Michael, Ivana, Emme and Anderson designing a light-weight bridge that could withstand the largest load of a moving locomotive to earn us double points, sealing our overall win! 

Ms Lydia Tomic 

Mathematics Teacher | Excellence & High Ability Practice Leader