Extension Programs

Da Vinci Decathlon 2019

On Friday 24 May and Tuesday 28 May, one team of students represented each of the cohorts from Years 8, 9 and 10 in the 2019 VIC Da Vinci Decathlon, held at Methodist Ladies’ College and Camberwell Grammar School.

The Da Vinci Decathlon is a prestigious academic interschool event run in the spirit of an Olympic Decathlon, with team challenges in ten categories including Science, English, Ideation, Art and Poetry, Cartography, Creative Producers, General Knowledge, Code Breaking, Mathematics and Engineering. The Decathlon serves as an exciting opportunity for some of our highest-achieving students to be extended and challenged in a rewarding and dynamic team environment.

Select students spent time during the semester engaged in mini workshops within each of the disciplines and we are grateful to the following teachers for their expertise and support: Mr Lawless, Mr Politini, Mr Oreo, Mr Cooper, Ms Koukoullides, Mr Ward, Mr Inturrisi and Mrs Di Martino. The competition day was incredibly challenging and our students both thrived and enjoyed the fast pace and high level of the complex tasks.

We are very proud of the way our students represented our College and congratulate our Year 8 team for their best performance, achieving first in Science and third in Mathematics. They competed against 30 other schools from across Victoria. This was the College’s first participation with a Year 8 team and we congratulate them on their outstanding performance.  In addition, a wonderful achievement from our Year 9/10 team, placing them 5th in Creative Producers and General Knowledge and 6th in Code Breaking among 25 other schools.

As you read the words of Sofia C and Malinsa H, they highlight the Aitken values reflected in the way our Aitken teams put on their best performances in terms of their team spirit, energy and encouragement of each other.

On Tuesday 28 May, our Year 8 Da Vinci Decathlon team travelled to Camberwell Grammar to compete in the annual event. The team of eight consisted of Kamryn, Malinsa, Chantelle, Xavier, Christopher, Andrew and Alfred.  Mrs Di Martino drove us to our destination and after putting away our bags we were ready to compete. The competition took place in a room with round tables for each team and eight chairs surrounding them. We had three sessions in total, each of which separated into disciplines and subjects. In our first session we had Science, Poetry and Art, Ideation and English. Each of the team members split up to cover all disciplines and continue to work together for the final result. We had exactly an hour to finish the challenges and a recess break straight after. 

Our second session consisted of Mathematics, Geography and Cartography. We split the mathematical problems up first, having a go at all the question while simultaneously working on Geography and Cartography. Towards the end of the session, three members, Xavier, Malinsa and Christopher went to represent the team in the Creative Producers section here they had to create a story to fit into the stimulus and present it. After another break, we had the third session which was Engineering, Code breaking and General Knowledge. We had the same divide and conquer plan as before, completing the last challenges of a tiring day. After all tasks were complete we met up with other schools at the assembly to hear our result. We were thrilled to hear we had received 1st place in Science and 3rd in Mathematics. We were incredibly proud of our result and honoured to be pioneers of the challenge for Year 8. It was a successful day and we would like thank Mrs Di Martino for giving us the opportunity to represent the school.

Malinsa (Year 8)

The Da Vinci Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students from Years 7-10. Students compete in teams of eight across 10 disciplines:  Cartography, Code Breaking, English, Engineering, Mathematics, Art and Poetry, Science, Ideation, Creative Producers and General Knowledge. On Friday 24 May, the Year 9 and Year 10 team went out to Methodist Ladies’ College in order to compete against the other schools. The day was full of fun challenges that tested our general knowledge and skills. Our group was made up of people with different strengths which assisted in the way we approached each task, as we were able to assign each challenge to specific people. Da Vinci was an amazing experience that enabled us to challenge our minds and taught us how to best approach challenges under a certain time pressure.

Sofia C (Year 9)

Well done to all our teams!

• Year 8 Team: Chantelle A, Kamryn D, Malinsa H, Christopher K, Alfred N, Xavier P and Andrew S.
• Year 9/10 Team: Sofia C, Eshan P, Adam H, Luke K, Hollie M, Alexander M, Lewis M and Angela S.

Mrs Mary Ann Di Martino

Head of Faculty - Extension Programs