Page 8 - 2021 - Altiora Vol 73 Sem 1 and 2

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8 | TOURNAMENT OF MINDS
T
OURNAMENT OF MINDS
MIND GAMES
MIND GAMES
When students signed up for Tournament of Minds TV show “Fixing Failures” at home and sharing their
at the end of last term, they expected to be working footage with each other for editing.
together face-to-face with their teammates in tackling Our Senior School Team recorded a Zoom meeting
a difficult challenge and then presenting their original between UN representatives and Galileo, Gandhi,
solutions to judges at a physical venue. Teams have Aung San Suu Kyi and Madam C J Walker in which
demonstrated outstanding problem solving, creativity, they discussed Goal #16: Peace, Justice and Strong
determination and commitment in adapting to a Institutions, with realistic and thoughtful reflections
completely online format. Many extra hours were on the challenges associated with achieving this goal.
spent in Zoom meetings, and working independently They used music (think Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
on aspects of the Challenges to bring together for Galileo!) to add to each character’s identity and
complex, creative solutions. In seven short weeks, demonstrated excellent teamwork to complete the
our two Junior School teams and four Senior School challenge on time.
teams each managed to produce video solutions of an
impressively high standard that thoroughly addressed The STEM Challenge, embraced by one of our Senior
the tough scoring criteria. School teams, involved the creation of coded objects
destined for outer space, with codes created using
Three of our teams chose the Language Literature light, sound and tactile stimuli, as well as a video
Challenge, setting a literary classic (from a list of set produced when all objects were combined. They also
texts) in a new context and developing a range of provided a mathematical explanation for how the
promotional materials for the upcoming release of objects would be sent back to the International Space
the reworked story. One of our Junior School teams Station. The team employed an impressive range of
adapted The Tale of Peter Rabbit, creating a tale about digital techniques to convey their solution, including
a little girl breaking the rules of not leaving her house animation, graphic design, screen recordings of social
during a lockdown and finding herself in alien territory, media posts and recorded Zoom meetings between
then needing to leave behind a necklace from her team members and the space agency ‘Magnetar’.
abducted mother in order to escape. Their finished
submission included an enormous amount of film All challenges were extremely difficult, and our teams
footage shot at home by individual students and put showed ingenuity, resourcefulness and tenacity in
together brilliantly by gritty editors on a steep learning rising to the demands of Tournament of Minds under
curve, as well as songs, a poster, cartoon strip, book extraordinary circumstances.
cover and creative backgrounds. On 6 September, we were thrilled to hear at the
th
One of our Senior School teams created ‘Malice’, Tournament of Minds Awards Ceremony via Zoom
a recreation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, (attended by over 1,000 people) that our Senior STEM
exploring the malicious intent underlying many Team received Tournament Honours, and our Junior
aspects of online communication and social media. School Language Literature and Social Sciences teams
They incorporated effective animation, moving film both won their disciplines and qualified for the State
clips and powerful visuals including a billboard into Finals.
their solution. Another Senior School team adapted
The Tale of Peter Rabbit to a Cold War setting,
with a Russian spy travelling to the US and stealing
information about nuclear weapons, as well as making
an important discovery about his father’s death. The
team’s interview format, in which the director, crew
and actors highlight important elements of the new
release, and an entertaining chase scene with original
music, were highly sophisticated and engaging.

The Social Sciences Challenge demanded an in-depth
examination of one of the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals, explored through a conversation
between four people whose own experiences informed
their viewpoint. Our Junior School Team constructed a
meaningful conversation between Sitting Bull, Gandhi,
Diana, Princess of Wales, and Martin Luther King Jr
about the current, critical, global issue of reducing
inequalities. They used costumes and images to
encapsulate the time periods represented by these
contributors, and showed great perseverance in
editing their script down to the required length of 10
minutes before filming separate components of their