Tournament of Minds- Challenging the world.

This afternoon I was fortunate enough to attend a tournament of Minds workshop from 1:30-4pm.
Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a creative problem solving programme for students from Year 5-10. It encourages stimulating and inspirational thinking in students.

TOM is Australasian-wide. It began in Melbourne in 1987 as an initiative for gifted and talented children. It was run for the first time in Christchurch in 2015 and has run in New Zealand for the last 16 years. Over 20 000 students participate in TOM internationally each year.

TOM is designed to encourage students to develop co-operative problem solving skills as well as creative and critical thinking in teams of seven students. Within teams students are required to solve 2 demanding, open ended challenges...a long term challenge over a six week period and a spontaneous challenge within a ten minute period. These challenges are completed at a regional tournament on a set day. A facilitator trains teams for the tournament during scheduled times.

Teams consist of 7 nominated members and a facilitator.Preparation involves exploring previous challenges, however the current years challenge is worked on solely by team members with no assistance from facilitators, parents or friends....a test of resilience.

Teams select one challenge from one of 4 disciplines: Language Literature; Engineering Mathematics; Social Sciences and Science Technology. Students are required to fulfill various roles, and are accountable for filling in various forms to ensure compliance with rules.

Winners of the regional tournaments in each discipline and year group are invited to the New Zealand final, usually held mid September. In 2016 this will be the first day of the school holidays. The winners from NZ are invited to participate in the Australasian final.

It would be interesting to work through some of the sample spontaneous challenges with students in our Year 5 and 6 team to see who would shine in this creative and dramatic light where students are encouraged to strive for excellence while being  rewarded for being unusual rather than for simply answering a question!