Young minds outthink opposition

 

Local young players in a recent game of ‘cerebral gymnastics’ have impressively achieved a semi-final placing in a coveted educational competition, ahead of hundreds of fellow competitors. 

Three teams of selected Mangawhai Beach School (MBS) students competed in the regional division of Tournament of Minds (TOMs) in Auckland on August 31, an event involving over 50 teams of primary, intermediate and college age schoolchildren from Northland to Auckland.

Two MBS groups were awarded first place in different categories while one team took out second, and now the two winning teams are heading to Wellington’s Victoria University on September 20 to compete in the national finals, MBS teacher Cate Campbell says. 

“If our teams win at the nationals they will be invited to the international finals in Tasmania to compete against the best teams from around the world!” she says. “We are very proud of this talented and hard-working group of kids.”

Competing in four theoretical divisions – Arts, Social Sciences, Science Technology Maths Engineering (STEM) and Language Literature – MBS Year 7/8 team won first place in Arts while one Year 5/6 took out first in the STEM division and the other team placed second in Arts.

TOMs is a problem-solving programme, a challenging game which celebrates the talents and capabilities of young minds and rewards outside-the-square thinking. Running for over 30 years and involving over 100 schools and thousands of school children nationwide, TOMs’ purpose is to expand children’s creative skills by encouraging exploration and experimentation with different theoretical ideas to discover viable solutions to demanding, open-ended challenges. Students then have to communicate their findings in an original and inventive format to a panel of selected judges. 

“Teams have to solve a complex challenge over six weeks and then perform their answer in 10 minutes in a three-by-three metre square to a panel of judges,” Campbell says. “They are scored on their creative and critical thinking skills as well as their ability to work as a team and effectively communicate their ideas.” 

To prepare for the challenge the teams selected students who had been identified as complex thinkers or advanced learners, attended MBS Learning Extension and Acceleration Programme (LEAP), workshops designed to cultivate creative and critical thinking, and led by Campbell, an expert teacher of LEAP. 

The teams are currently fundraising for the costs of attending the national competition. 

“They will be selling chilli-bean and mince nachos and homemade lemonade at school on Thursdays for the next three weeks,” Campbell says. “If you are a business able to offer financial support to these talented and hard-working kids, the school would love to hear from you. We wish them all the best for the national finals.”

MBS TOMs team pictured with proud principal Aaron Kemp; an ability to think outside the proverbial square brought the creative and critical thinkers a big win at the recent challenge event. 

Wellsford Primary also had success at TOMs with one Y7/8 team winning first place in the STEM challenge and are now also heading to the Wellington national finals.