Tournament of Minds

CONGRATULATIONS!

Some of you may know that we recently had four teams of students from grades 4 - 6 participate in Tournament of Minds. Tournament of Minds is a problem solving competition for teams of students where they are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges using creative problem solving approaches and techniques. Our students were presented with a lengthy problem based around their chosen discipline area and given several weeks to work on a solution to be presented to a panel of judges. Over 200 Victorian schools competed in the tournament which is held nation-wide.

Two teams took part in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) challenge, another in the Language Literature challenge and another in The Arts challenge. 

For the past 7 weeks, teams initially attended lunchtime and before school meetings at school before transitioning to daily online meetings due to lockdown. The transition to online meetings presented many challenges to the students including how to re-invent their solutions from an ‘in-person’ performance to a Webex performance. They handled the challenge exceptionally well and used their problem solving skills to adapt to the changes while abiding by the strict rules of the tournament.

Teams worked collaboratively in breakout rooms on Webex to research, develop scripts, design and create simple props and costumes that would enhance their solutions to the challenges they were required to solve. 

All teams worked tirelessly to submit their recorded presentations (due to lockdown) last week, and the judges viewed and scored the submissions last weekend. All of our teams received excellent feedback and were commended by the judges for the efforts they put in, especially under the challenging circumstances. 

I am very proud to announce that our two STEM Teams (Space Team & It’s Space Science, Not Rocket Science) both received an ‘Honours’ score. 

Additionally, our Arts Team (The Differences We Share) won FIRST PLACE in their discipline! Yes, FIRST PLACE!!! 

This means that the Arts Team will participate in the State Finals, held online on Sunday 12 September where they will compete in a ‘Spontaneous Challenge’ live online before the judges. 

The Spontaneous Challenge will see the team presented with a problem that they have 4 minutes to discuss and then 2 minutes to present. Sound challenging? 

Well, The Arts Team are already working hard to practice their teamwork, spontaneity and creativity online by allocating roles for each team member and engaging with a variety of scenarios. 

I’m sure everybody within our MPS community will join me in wishing them luck for September 12!

Personally, I would like to thank all of our teams who participated in the tournament. The commitment, creativity, teamwork and resilience they all showed was absolutely exceptional. What a talented bunch of kids! 

Stay tuned for an update of the Arts Team’s journey to the State Finals!!!

Mr Damian Cripps