Tournament of Minds (TOM) is an international problem-solving program for teams of students from primary and secondary years.

What is Tournament of Minds (TOM)?

• It is a problem solving programme for teams of seven students from school entry to Year 10.
• Teams are required to solve two demanding, open-ended Challenges. 
• Both Challenges are presented on Tournament Day. 
• Each team has a facilitator appointed to prepare and train teams for the Tournament.
• Tournament of Minds has run in schools in Australia and New Zealand for over 30 years. 
• Over 40,000 students participate nationally in the Asia Pacific region each year. 
• TOM is now in schools in Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa and the UAE
• TOM is centred upon creative thinking and problem solving. 
• It is up to teams to work together to answer a challenge as creatively as possible over 6 weeks.They then present the solution as a 10 minute performance. 
• On TOM day teams are also presented with an unseen Spontaneous Challenge to complete in 5 minutes, with no previous knowledge. Teams are judged on their teamwork, creative thinking processes and creativity of the response.

Teams are made up of seven students, they can be from the same year level or across different year levels. Teams will be formulated once we have an idea of the number of tamariki who would like to participate.

What are the Benefits?

The skills encouraged in Tournament of Minds include: 

• co-operation 

• teamwork, 

• risk-taking, and 

• creative, divergent and critical thinking. 

The objectives of TOM are:

• Provide the stimulation of real open-ended Challenges 

• Develop creative problem solving approaches and techniques 

• Foster co-operative learning and teamwork 

• Promote knowledge and appreciation of self and others

• Encourage experimentation and risk taking 

• Expand and reward creative and divergent thinking 

• Stimulate a spirit of enquiry and a love of learning 

• Develop enterprise 

• Celebrate excellence

The Challenges:

Teams are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines:

• The Arts
  A new discipline for those who have a love for the visual and performing arts!
  The long term challenges will involve research before developing a creative interpretation in response to the Challenge. Plenty of opportunities for artistic expression in the form of dance, song, musical instruments, theatre and all forms of the Visual Arts.
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
  The combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics principles provides an integrated approach for students to deepen their conceptual understanding and use their creative and critical thinking skills to solve the challenges within an authentic context.
• Language Literature
  Language Literature Challenges will involve in-depth analysis and research of texts from a variety of fields.
• Social Sciences
  A journey through the moral and ethical issues confronting society in the 21st Century.

In Term 2 teams will practice together and in Term 3 they will be presented with their challenge from their chosen discipline. The regional tournament day where they present their performance is scheduled for Saturday 26 August at Lincoln High School.

We are currently taking expressions of interest, we require at least 7 students to form a team but are hoping we can register more teams. Please complete this form with your tamariki if they are keen to be part of Tournament of Minds this year.