The Da Vinci Decathlon
An Academic Competition of Ten Disciplines
J. L. Pan
LAST WEDNESDAY, 24 SHORE STUDENTS from the High Potential Learners program in Year 9 to 11 travelled to Knox Grammar School for the Senior State Da Vinci Decathlon. Everyone was excited, albeit nervous, looking forward to competing in teams of eight against over 200 other teams and 1,500 other students.
We began the day by arriving at Shore bright and early, at 7.00 am. From there, we travelled to Knox Grammar School by train where we were greeted by a sea of students from hundreds of schools around NSW, each with their own teams competing for a series of coveted Da Vinci prizes.
After a brief team photo, we promptly entered the hall and arrived at our assigned seats. At about 8:30 am, Section One of the Decathlon began which lasted 90 minutes. This section involved standard subjects such as English and Science, as well as more creative ones including Ideation, Cartography (the study of maps) and Creative Producers (drama). These were all based around the day’s general theme, Unity.
Next was a brief recess which allowed the teams an opportunity to meet students from other teams, whether it be catching up with old primary school friends or meeting like-minded students. Following this, our team began Section Two, which consisted of Mathematics, Art and Poetry, Engineering, and Code-Breaking.
Following a quick lunch, our team competed in the final subject of the decathlon – Legacy, or a general knowledge quiz thematically connected to Leonardo da Vinci’s life. Unlike the prior two sections, we only had 30 minutes to complete this paper. After some tough decisions and some clever guesswork, we submitted our paper, marking the end of the competition section of the decathlon.
A few friendly quizzes and performances followed, with questions such as “How many uses can you find for a yellow balloon?” To conclude the decathlon, the results were announced. Our Shore Year 9 team performed particularly well, with a 2nd place in Engineering and 3rd place in both Code Breaking and Mathematics. Furthermore, we placed 3rd in the overall rankings, only losing out to PLC Pymble and the hosts themselves, Knox. The Year 10 and Year 11 teams also garnished a few rankings in subjects.
Overall, the Da Vinci Decathlon was an academically challenging, yet fun and rewarding day for all those involved in the competition. Everyone enjoyed the stimulating nature of the papers and learnt a lot working in teams to solve complicated problems. The organisation of both Mr Massey and Mr Straney on the day are much appreciated for making this as fun of an event as possible. We look forward to next year’s competition.
