Page 26 - 2020 Altiora Vol 72

OURNAMENT OF MINDS
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The creativity, teamwork and commitment of our ToM
teams has been rewarded with outstanding results in the
recent Tournament of Minds 2020 Super Challenge!
This year, instead of attending a Tournament as would
usually be the case, teams were invited to submit a video
solution to an extremely open-ended problem following
a six-week preparation period. Teams also were required
to submit forms detailing their processes, and identifying
the team values and behaviours that supported their
successful response to the Challenge.

BMGS fielded two Junior School and three Senior
School teams, all of which demonstrated remarkable
creative thinking, independence, grit and drive to develop
excellent solutions.

In the Sydney-West Region, our Junior School
‘Adventurers’ Team (top right) was awarded Tournament
Honours for their hard-hitting solution exploring the
plight of asylum seekers, after the discovery of a creature
whose underground home was being destroyed by the
impact of human activity on Earth’s core.

Our Junior School ‘Shine Brightly’ Team (pictured right,
second and third from top) received a Merit Award for
being one of the top two Primary teams in the Region.
The team’s performance showed young people
contemplating confronting truths spoken by an ancient
Roman statue, and realising the link between living the
truth and happiness. Their presentation, while delivered
largely through song and music, also displayed impressive
STEM skills, with a 3D-printed lamp glowing at different
levels of brightness; an important element of the story.
Our Senior School ‘Seven Deadly Sevens’ Team also
received a Merit Award for achieving in the top 10%
of all Secondary teams across the Region, with a
contemporary take on the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box,
and a reflection on the spread of gluttony through
social media.
Our Year 8 Cre8tives Team developed a profound
solution around the value of a particular mindset –
discovered by University Latin students among the
inhabitants of an ancient island ‘Libera Nos’ – that
promoted equal growth and advancement of all
members of society.
Our Year 9 Pentagonists Team (pictured bottom right)
produced a creative solution in the Film Noir genre in
which the “key to the future” is E flat Major, a discovery
that enables a musical group to transform their playing
and maintain audiences while also going on an emotional
journey of personal change.
All teams produced intelligent solutions of an excellent
standard that were appreciated by the judges.
We thank Dr Elissa Drew (School parent and BMGS
Alumnus, 1988) for her superb stewardship of this
program and for making this opportunity possible
for our students.