Tournament of Minds
We are very proud of our Year 5 and 6 students who participated in the Regional Finals of the Tournament of Minds (TOM) Competition this year. The Primary School entered a team in each of the Social Sciences, STEM and The Arts disciplines. Each team worked hard to develop their Long-Term Challenge over six weeks and performed admirably on the day to present their Long-Term Challenge solution as well as compete in the unseen Spontaneous Challenge.
The STEM Team was commissioned by the ‘TOMadise’ Tourist Company to make replacement exotic birds for the imaginary island of ‘TOMadise’ whose population of magnificent bird-life continues to rapidly decline. The STEM Team, consisting of Bridget Weaver (Year 6), Holly Ancher (Year 6), Romy Schmidt (Year 6), Alexandra Millin (Year 5), Matilda Reuss (Year 5), Lucinda Carroll (Year 5) and Viola Heery (Year 5), was challenged to create an exotic bird which, when released from its perch, had to fly freely and unaided with no support or guide wires and without the use of an electronic power source. The bird had to complete two different manoeuvres and the girls had to explain the mathematics and science involved in their bird’s flight path. The girls approached this challenge with persistence and resilience, and they did an excellent job performing their solution on the day.
Demonstrating creative and divergent thinking, The Arts Team was tasked with the challenge to develop a 3D immersive art installation to represent an artist and a piece of their work. Selecting the artist Wassily Kandinsky and his famous artwork ‘squares with concentric circles’, the girls worked collaboratively to create their own costumes, props, a soundscape and dramatic script to bring the artwork to life. The team consisted of Erica Lansdown (Year 6), Ella Ungur (Year 5), Matilda Tatlow (Year 5), Annabelle Dempsey (Year 5) , Charlotte Randall (Year 5), Giselle Wharton (Year 5) and Mackenzie Jothy (Year 5) and were recognised for their efforts with an Honours award on the day.
With a wonderful spirit of collaboration, the Social Sciences team, consisting of Year 6 students Perdita Taylor, Clementine Reuss, Isla Roberts, Chelsea Fallshaw, Zara Anderson, Sienna Dwyer and Helena Squires, also received an Honours award. Their challenge was titled “Clash of the Ages” and required the girls to explain the cause of a time convergence where an event from a distant time in the past and a 20th century event merged, causing the world we now live in to be completely different. The girls also received the very impressive Spirit of TOM Award. This award is given to the team that demonstrates the values that underpin the Tournament of Minds competition. It celebrates the teams’ ability to work collaboratively and to respect the views and opinions of all team members whilst abiding by the rules of the competition.
Congratulations to all the Primary girls who participated in the Tournament of Minds Competition.
Kristy Williams & Cristi Wilsmore
TOM Primary School Facilitators
