Tournament of Minds
On Sunday, 28th August, BMGS fielded six enthusiastic TOM teams at the Sydney West Regional Tournament of Minds. It was exciting to return to a face-to-face format after two years of participating online. Teams of seven students had spent six intense weeks collaborating on the development of a creative solution to an open-ended Challenge in their choice of discipline. A great deal of time and effort had gone into preparing ten-minute dramatic presentations that thoroughly addressed the scoring criteria, and team members are to be congratulated on their commitment and determination.
In addition to the Long-Term Challenge, teams contested a Spontaneous Challenge on the day, during which they had four minutes to generate clever, creative ideas to solve a previously unseen problem. Teams are judged on their teamwork and thinking processes as well as the quality of their responses. Practice also paid off in this aspect of the Tournament.
It was a hugely successful day for BMGS, with all teams performing extremely well and receiving positive feedback from the judges. Our Secondary Language Literature and Secondary Arts teams were awarded Tournament Honours, and one of our Primary Language Literature teams won their discipline and thus qualified for the State Final this weekend!
Our Secondary Social Sciences team had to explore the cultural significance of a chosen circle, and developed a sophisticated presentation highlighting the importance of the metaphorical circle of democracy, set in the context of ancient Athenian ruins. Stunning props and costumes contributed to their strong performance.
Our Primary Social Sciences team, addressing the same challenge, created a circle built by the Tongva tribe of the West Los Angeles Basin, in which emotions held by tribal guardians helped to select a chief and ensured balanced emotions in society. When the ‘happiness topaz’ was broken in anger, happiness in society was diminished and could only be restored by the crystal being put back together hundreds of years later. Original songs and a range of costumes helped to convey the powerful story.
The BMGS Secondary Arts team needed to demonstrate the importance of art forms in communicating meaning in a presentation investigating the identification of a mystery person. They created fabrics, jewellery and artworks (tattoos) as well as music to represent a previously unknown culture. The judges were particularly impressed with their costumes and their convincing performance.
Three of our teams chose the Language Literature Challenge in which literary antagonists from diverse genres had to question their portrayal, and present their side of the story. Our Secondary team delivered a highly engaging and entertaining presentation, with Scylla, Agatha Trunchbull and the Bunyip (of Three Sisters ‘fame’) finding the courage to stand up for themselves and insisting that the author’s control of their actions led to their true characters being misunderstood. One of our Primary teams set up a court case in which various protagonists and antagonists took the stand. After hearing their perspectives, the presiding judge found Cerberus and the ghost of the Swagman (from Waltzing Matilda) innocent but declared that Draco Malfoy chose to be evil and his actions could not be justified. Our victorious Primary Language Literature team created a scenario in which Peter Pan presided in a celebratory manner over Captain Hook’s funeral until Mother Gothel, Mrs Potiphar and Count Olaf came out of hiding to reveal the truth about their own motivations and actions, and convinced him to adopt a more balanced, respectful view of antagonists in general. This team showed great resilience and composure in coping with the absence of a treasured team member due to illness on Tournament Day. Thoughtfully adjusting their script and frantically learning new lines to accommodate Rapunzel’s absence, they rose to the challenge remarkably. The skilful use of rhyme as well as detailed costumes, original music, soundscapes and mime were very effective elements in these presentations.
Tournament of Minds is a demanding co-curricular activity in which team members are not permitted to receive assistance from anyone other than team mates in generating ideas or making anything, and must complete most of their work outside of school hours. Collaborative skills, reliability and creativity are developed and rewarded through this program. Some of our Year 10 students have been participating in Tournament of Minds since they were in Year 5 and we pay tribute to their enormous contributions and brilliant achievements over the years! While they will be too old to compete next year, they have expressed interest in becoming judges and, as such, will give back to TOM in a very meaningful way.
Sincere thanks to families for supporting team members throughout this season, and three cheers for our fabulous teams for applying themselves to the rigorous challenge of TOM!
Dr Elissa Drew and Ms Katie Walters
BMGS TOM Facilitators