Tournament of Minds
On Sunday 25th March, two creative and eager Primary teams, comprising of pupils from Year 3 - Year 6, entered the Asia ‘Tournament of Minds’ competition hosted at Bangkok Prep. Over the last two terms the teams have met during ECA and lunchtimes to develop their problem solving skills – developing analytical, interpretation and presentation skills; they have learnt to discuss, compromise and collaborate together to create solutions to a variety of tasks.
On Sunday, they had to perform their interpretations of the problems to an unknown panel of judges. While we didn’t have any winners, the children had an amazing day out and got to challenge themselves in new ways. The judges were impressed by the participation of all members of the team, and the home-made costumes, props and scenery which were used to enhance their presentations. The teams also had to respond to an unseen ‘spontaneous’ task which they only had a short time scale to prepare and present with no adult support.
The tournament provides the children with a number of challenges, such as combining two countries and coming up with a new flag and a new national dance, and using the characters from one story and combining it with the plot of a different story. This abstract thinking includes many elements of STEAM, which will be introduced across the Primary school next year. If you think your child/ren would benefit from these challenges, keep an eye out for more STEAM opportunities coming soon to St Andrews.
Thank you to Ms Miri and Ms Sarah for providing this opportunity for the students.