Extension Programs

Tournament of Minds 2020

This term Aitken College entered a team of students across Year 7 and Year 8 in the annual Tournament of Minds Program. This year’s version of the program called “The Online Super Challenge" was held on Zoom. Over 150 teams across Victoria participated in the Super Challenge which required them to submit a video of their solution instead of presenting it to a live audience. Students were challenged to demonstrate flexibility in their thinking and create a collaborative solution that demonstrated originality and elaboration as well as evidence of creative use of ICT platforms. Our team not only had to solve the Super Challenge but also had to contend with the difficulties of the lockdown restrictions. Throughout the 4 to 5 week challenge, our students demonstrated the spirit of Tournament of Minds, responding positively to overcoming obstacles encountered during the Challenge timeline and demonstrating cooperation and self-discipline in their problem-solving. The students really enjoyed their involvement in Tournament of Minds and all members deserve to be congratulated for on their team work.

The experience of being a part of the Tournament of Minds has been amazing and unforgettable for us all, especially during these unprecedented times. Doing this event through remote learning brought its own challenges as we had to perform and discuss ideas over Zoom. We planned how we would answer the Super Challenge and how to accomplish our goal of making a complete video that displays our solution. We have taken great pleasure in working as a team and overcoming obstacles in the process of the tournament.

Year 7 & 8 Team: Alexander H, Alejandro Y, Brianna M, Luke P, Manaan B, Michael Z, Suveer C

G.A.T.E.WAYS - Online Programs

This term select Fairview students had the opportunity to participate in three G.A.T.E.WAYS online programs. Through these programs, the students applied their higher order thinking skills in order to investigate structures of bridges, binary systems and relationships between geometric concepts and origami. The students enjoyed the workshops and the challenges presented therein.

Christian enjoyed making the paper bridge using two stacks of books, one piece of A4 paper and Duplo Lego. He was challenged when asked to construct the bridge from paper. Everything he tried was not sturdy enough. He learnt that triangles are the best shape to make bridges because if you put pressure on top it is still steady because the sides bend and still support. He used 75 Duplo blocks on top of an A4 piece of paper using a concertina fold.

Parent, Year 1 student

The G.A.T.E.WAYS program was something new to me. I learnt about the history of bridges, different bridges around the world and the shapes of bridges and the materials used to make the bridges. The most enjoyable and challenging part of the program was designing a paper bridge which can hold the most weight. We tried different shapes for the bridge to see which would hold the most Lego pieces. The G.A.T.E.WAYS program challenged me by the origami challenge we had to do and we learnt about pi, angles and how to do paper origami.  

Dennis J, Year 2

Bronel enjoyed binary bingo and learning about how computers work. His biggest challenge was writing his name in binary and making the origami, but he had a lot of fun!  Parent, Year 1 student

Mrs Mary Ann Di Martino

Head of Faculty Extension Programs