On September 21st, our Clearview TOMs (Tournament of Minds) STEM team attended the National competition in Wellington.

Teams from different regions all over New Zealand took part in the competition. The purpose of tournament of minds is to challenge students (primary, intermediate and secondary) to solve real-world problems.

We have been practicing every since Term 1, trialling and doing practice challenges.

We were put in a ‘lock up’ situation where we were in a room for 3 hours completing a STEM challenge. STEM covers science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The lock up challenge was about creating a magnetically controlled spacecraft to decrease the use of fuel. The teams were required to come up with a create a scenario in which this method would be used, while demonstrating our understanding of science We had 3 hours to come up with a solution to the challenge and 10 minutes to present their solution to a panel of judges. They were also given a spontaneous challenge - a five minute challenge where teams are given a random scenario to solve creatively. The spontaneous challenge required teams to collaborate and think imaginatively about a box labelled ‘creativity’.

Our STEM team did a great job and came away with the amazing result of first place. Thank you to everyone who has supported us and bought a fruju or raffle ticket. You have helped us to raise funds to go to Wellington, and we appreciate it very much.

The team was Lucca Greenwood, Owen Brown, Tyler Keen, Michelle Yang, Danielle Fitzgerald, Matthew Hunter & Samuel Halligan