The Tournament of Minds is an exciting problem-solving competition for teams of students from secondary schools. The competition was held on Sunday, 28 August, at Edith Cowan University in Bunbury. Our Lady of Mercy College had five teams participating, who competed in disciplines of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the Arts and Language Literature.
Tournament of Minds aims to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management, and the discipline to work collaboratively within a competitive environment. The competition looks beyond academic achievement and understands that the pursuit of excellence knows no boundaries. Working in teams, effective problem-solving, thinking outside the square and using technology are values employers are searching for in the employee of tomorrow.
Our students had six weeks to prepare a response to a Long-Term Challenge, which they presented during the day. They also had to compete in a Spontaneous Challenge on the day.
"The STEM challenge was all about teamwork and technological errors that had to be fixed, like our gold nugget motor. The day added a whole new level of nervousness, but we worked well together using teamwork and our talents as tools." Samuel
"The Arts challenge was about using teamwork to solve a problem regarding a mystery person, figuring out who they were with their clothing and accessories." Shiksha
"The Language Literature challenge used teamwork and friendship to create a fun script and we all worked well together. We had to explain why three antagonists from common stories were portrayed wrongly and perform it as an interesting play." Emma
All students involved should be very proud of their results. They came out with smiles on their faces and a sense of pride that they had managed to take a complicated problem, develop a solution and present it to a panel of judges in an entertaining way.
