05 Sep 2017
Tacking Point Public School will provide four teams at the state level of judging in the prestigious Tournament of the Minds.
The four teams – a first for the school at this level – will travel to the University of NSW on Sunday September 10 for the competition. There is a secondary high school section to the event.
If successful, the winning teams will progress to Australiasia/Pacific level judging on October 26 in Adelaide.
The school's Tournament of the Minds facilitator and year 5 and 6 enrichment class teacher Cherry Nelson said the school community was proud and ecstatic with the results.
"We had five teams competing in the regional round of Tournament of the Mind and to have four teams take out every discipline is remarkable," she said.
"This success is due to the programs the school offers where we encourage higher order thinking, especially in science and technology.
"We are very much focused on building the skills of collaboration, critical and creative thinking, innovative thinking, communication and digital literacy."
In Tournament of the Minds, teams are given a time period in which to creatively solve a problem. At regional level the time frame is six weeks while at state level it is just three hours.
You learn new skills including how to work in a group, learn to interpret information, acting, writing scripts, communication and problem solving- Milly Dunbar
There is also a spontaneous question that requires a shorter time frame.
One of the students, Thomas Stanely, said Tournament of the Minds was based on four disciplines.
"We have four teams competing at state level in, Science Technology, Engineering Mathematics, Social Sciences and Language Literature," he said.
Another student, Milly Dunbar said there were many benefits of participating in the competition.
"You learn new skills including how to work in a group, learn to interpret information, acting, writing scripts, communication and problem solving," she said.
Zac Schneider said Tournament of the Minds was about future focus learning where you are encouraged to work outside the square.
Olivia Oakeshott said future focus learning is based on the seven ‘c's'.
"We use the seven c's to build up our skills to help problem solve. They are, cross-cultural understanding, computer technologies, career learning, collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking," Olivia said.
Twenty eight students will participate in Sunday's event in Sydney.
The school has a tremendous history of success at Tournament of the Minds with a 2009 team taking out the Australiasian and Pacific first prize in language and literature. While three of its teams have also reached state level in previous years, Ms Nelson said this was the first year four of its teams had reached that level.