14th October, 2016
Two Girton Grammar Tournament of Minds teams have won the Bendigo Regional finals and the Victorian State competition and will compete in the Australasian Pacific Final to be held at the Gold Coast this Saturday 16th October.
The teams will compete against winning teams from all over Australia as well as teams from Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
Headmaster of Girton Grammar School, Mr Matthew Maruff, said that Tournament of Minds requires participants to deal with unseen, spontaneous problems.
“This competition is a great way to encourage students to become creative problem solvers and great decision makers.
“It requires students to act on their wits, something that young people are doing less of as our lives become more predictable and information so readily available,” he said.
Tournament of Minds is a national competition open to students from Years 4 to 10 and involves presenting solutions to given and spontaneous problems in a three-by-three metre space, within a 10 minute timeframe, in front of a live audience and judges.
The four categories of problems are: Applied/Technology, Maths/Engineering, Language/Literature and Social Sciences. Girton Grammar teams who will compete nationally are Dumbledore’s Army with students in Years 7 to 10 and Fluorescent Unicorns with students from Years 5 and 6.
“Tournament of Minds encourages quick thinking and collaboration and it’s fantastic to see students having the courage to put themselves on the spot and work their way out of a problem.
“Girton has had teams in the National competition for the last 3 years in a row and will continue to support this fantastic co-curricular activity,” Mr Maruff said.
