Tournament of Minds

Last weekend, two Dominic College teams participated in the State Final of the Tournament of Minds, a problem solving programme for teams of students from primary and secondary years who solve demanding, open-ended challenges from many disciplines.

Teams work on a Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents or peers. They are encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour to produce their best possible solution, to be communicated creatively, working within predefined parameters such as limited materials, complex criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day.

Students then present their challenge solution in ten minutes to a panel of judges and audience on Tournament Day. Teams must also participate in an unseen Spontaneous Challenge on Tournament Day requiring rapid interchanges of ideas, the ability to think creatively and group cooperation skills. Both our teams performed admirably and report below.

Mr Andrew Pritchard - Director of Pastoral Care K-10 Primary section

In the K-6 Tournament of Minds, we committed ourselves to a Maths and Engineering challenge called ‘A One Way Trip.’ We had to design and build a lottery machine that delivers a rigged subset of numbers with preferred candidates going to Mars.

We had a team of seven including: Priyannika Kumrai – 4A, Bryon Shaji – 4B, Neena Fraser – 5A, Harrison Johnston – 5B, Max Peters – 6B, Noah Oliver – 6B and Sarah O’Reilly – 6A. Full team pictured below.

We had to do a lot of research on planned journeys to Mars such as Mars One. We had to go through a number of challenges starting from the initial stages of understanding the problem, finding the best way to solve it, writing scripts, preparing props, rehearsing to ensure that we keep within the 10-minute time frame and performing within a 3x3 metre square area. We gave up many lunchtimes, as well as staying late after school on Mondays and coming to school on some Saturdays to be ready for our presentation.

On Saturday 9 September, we went to Ogilvie High School for our final presentation to a panel of judges and an audience. We also had a spontaneous problem to solve within four minutes. We were able to watch some other schools perform in different challenges and after that, we had our main performance.

We didn’t get an award but we all worked extremely hard and had a wonderful time. Tournament Of Minds is a great learning privilege and it is amazing! Very special thanks to Ms Kumrai and Ms McDevitt who supervised our team. Tournament of Minds could not go ahead without the support of the school and parents. Keep watching for the competition again next year!

Priyannika Kumrai - Year 4 Student

Six students from Year 7-10 participated in the annual Tournament of Minds challenge, held at Ogilvie High School. Jack Breward, Mikaela Cruz, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Ella Fitzpatrick, Oscar Breslin and myself completed two challenges on the day. Our team did have Harry Breslin for preparation but he was unfortunately sick on the day.

Our first challenge of the day was an impromptu, where we were given a problem to solve as soon as we walked into the room. The judges assessed our ability to work as a team and see what we could come up with.

After completing this challenge, we had a few hours to practice for our second challenge. We had chosen to undertake the Language Literature challenge, which consisted of creating a new story that has been influenced by ‘hidden gem’ characters from other stories. After a few weeks of brainstorming and working together on the challenge, we pulled it all together and presented it to the judges.

We would like to thank Mr Pritchard and Mrs Palermo for giving us the opportunity to work together. I would really recommend students next year to do the Tournament of Minds, as it was a lot of fun and a super interesting experience.

Julia Narracott- College Vice Captain 7-10