Gifted Education Program News

Future Problem Solving

From Zac Apelt 11D:

On Wednesday, a group of four boys from Year 11 – Sam Allpass, Zac Apelt, Finn McDougall and Thomas Reed travelled to Brisbane Girls’ Grammar School as part of the Future Problem-Solving Program. The competition requires students to consider a future scene, for instance, in 2050 where the world suffers from extreme weather patterns and compromised food security. It requires you to analyse specific problems which exist in the given scenario and then pose possible solutions to best mitigate the impact they have on the environment, or the economy or other categories. 

On the excursion, we met the Deputy National Director of Future Problem Solving who explained how to best approach the competition. Additionally, on our trip, we had the incredible opportunity to learn about the human environmental impacts from Deanna van den Berg, an earth scientist who had seen and witnessed the effects firsthand. It proved to be an incredibly valuable experience moving into the qualifying rounds but also made us appreciate that these dystopian-like futures may be closer than we first thought.

Tournament of Minds

Teams are almost finalised, but we still need some Year 5 and 6 students to complete our three primary teams as well as a few Year 7 – 10 students to fill the seven secondary teams. Anyone interested should contact me via email or register via the Learning Portal. Parents – encourage your son/s to consider this creative problem-solving program. 

The Challenges have arrived and the teams definitely need to make a start to ensure they have plenty of time to work on their solutions. Teams will be practising the Spontaneous Challenge process over the next week. All TOM students must check their emails each day and keep an eye on the Learning Portal for updates and times for the meetings. 

Majella Stevens – stevensm@marash.qld.edu.au

English Speaking Union – Senior Division – Public Speaking

On Monday 19 July, two of our senior students participated in the Senior Division of the English-Speaking Union’s Public Speaking Competition. Daniel Lynn 12G represented the College in Heat 1 and Sam Allpass 11G gave his speech in Heat 2. Twenty-one students participated on the night, and all spoke on the quote by Plutarch “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change or who nods when I nod. My shadow can do that much better.” All speakers took a different approach to the topic, and the quality of presentations was exceptionally high. Dan and Sam acquitted themselves very well and received valuable feedback from the adjudicators. Unfortunately, they did not qualify for the Final this year, but both should be proud of their effort. 

CyberTaipan

Students are reminded that they can begin to learn about cybersecurity strategies by attending the sessions each Friday morning in Room 403 from 7:30am-8:30am. Students from Years 5 – 12 are welcome. 

Roly Sussex Short Story Writing Competition

Don’t forget that secondary students and adults can enter the Roly Sussex Short Story Writing Competition. Students should contact me to discuss their entries. Prize money is $1000 for the winner and $500 for second in the student category. Adults can win $7500 for first place and $1500 for second. There is an upper limit of 3000 words for the story, which can be on any topic. With a First Place and a Highly Commended in the past four years, our students have enjoyed some success in this competition.