Tournament of Minds

Tournament of Minds Challenges Completed!

When students signed up for TOM at the end of last term, they expected to be working together face-to-face with their teammates in tackling a difficult challenge and then presenting their original solutions to judges at a physical venue. Teams have demonstrated outstanding problem solving, creativity, determination and commitment in adapting to a completely online format. Many extra hours were spent in Zoom meetings, and working independently on aspects of the Challenges to bring together complex, creative solutions. In seven short weeks, our two Junior School teams and four Senior School teams each managed to produce video solutions of an impressively high standard that thoroughly addressed the tough scoring criteria.  

 

Three of our teams chose the Language Literature Challenge, setting a literary classic (from a list of set texts) in a new context and developing a range of promotional materials for the upcoming release of the reworked story. One of our Junior School teams adapted The Tale of Peter Rabbit, creating a tale about a little girl breaking the rules of not leaving her house during a lockdown and finding herself in alien territory, then needing to leave behind a necklace from her abducted mother in order to escape. Their finished submission included an enormous amount of film footage shot at home by individual students and put together brilliantly by gritty editors on a steep learning curve, as well as songs, a poster, cartoon strip, book cover and creative backgrounds. One of our Senior School teams created ‘Malice’, a recreation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, exploring the malicious intent underlying many aspects of online communication and social media. They incorporated effective animation, moving film clips and powerful visuals including a billboard into their solution.  Another Senior School team adapted The Tale of Peter Rabbit to a Cold War setting, with a Russian spy travelling to the US and stealing information about nuclear weapons, as well as making an important discovery about his father’s death. The team’s interview format, in which the director, crew and actors highlight important elements of the new release, and an entertaining chase scene with original music, were highly sophisticated and engaging.

The Social Sciences Challenge demanded an in-depth examination of one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, explored through a conversation between four people whose own experiences informed their viewpoint. Our Junior School Team constructed a meaningful conversation between Sitting Bull, Gandhi, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Martin Luther King Jr about the current, critical, global issue of reducing inequalities. They used costumes and images to encapsulate the time periods represented by these contributors, and showed great perseverance in editing their script down to the required length of 10 minutes before filming separate components of their TV show “Fixing Failures” at home and sharing their footage with each other for editing. Our Senior School Team recorded a Zoom meeting between UN representatives and Galileo, Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi and Madam C J Walker in which they discussed Goal #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, with realistic and thoughtful reflections on the challenges associated with achieving this goal. They used music (think Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody for Galileo!) to add to each character’s identity and demonstrated excellent teamwork to complete the challenge on time.

The STEM Challenge, embraced by one of our Senior School teams, involved the creation of coded objects destined for outer space, with codes created using light, sound and tactile stimuli, as well as a video produced when all objects were combined. They also provided a mathematical explanation for how the objects would be sent back to the International Space Station. The team employed an impressive range of digital techniques to convey their solution, including animation, graphic design, screen recordings of social media posts and recorded Zoom meetings between team members and the space agency ‘Magnetar’. 

 

All challenges were extremely difficult, and our teams showed ingenuity, resourcefulness and tenacity in rising to the demands of Tournament of Minds under extraordinary circumstances. Teams are to be applauded for the depth and creativity of their solutions and for their remarkable efforts. Well done, everyone!

 

Teams:

Junior School Language Literature Team:  Amelie Emmerson, Simeon Gee, Henry Laurie, Elise Lowe, Arial Reeves, Charlotte Scott, Clare Stewart.

 

Junior School Social Sciences Team:  Georgia Anicic, Rose Burgess, William Cottle, Lorence Hampartzoumian, Hester Kinnear, Zarah Snedden, Declan Thomas.

 

Senior School STEM Team:  Abbey Crompton, Raphael Hampartzoumian, William Houghton, Sophia Huckel, Nicholas Roberson, Finley Snedden.

 

Senior Social Sciences Team “Great Minds”: Charlotte Evans, Iluka Horn, Hannah Salins, Frankie McNair, Evie Pritchard, Ruby Gale, Giselle Brogan.

 

Senior School Language Literature Team "Cats":  Eric Downes, Jack Laurie, Clementine Macarthur, Alicia Naumann, Chiara Reeves, Gracie Saunders, Maggie Vivian. 

 

Senior Language Literature Team “Agents”: Emily Colbran, Meaghan Docherty, Oliver Drew, Amelie Hugo, Zoe Gee, Claudia Ivery, Reagan Lloyd. 

 

Dr. Elissa Drew

TOM Co-Ordinator