Crest - Tasks 2 and 3

This weeks tasks were "Sky High", building a paper plane using specific resources, and "Marble Roll" creating a device to help a marble travel 3m to hit a target.

We expanded on our design discussions from last week, thinking about strong structures and the bracing that helps create these.  Our winning plane flew 10.8m and one of the marble roles hit the target earning 5 points, one hit the centre space earning two points and we all found areas to improve on for next time.

BP Technology CREST

Today, a number of students from Kahurangi and Haepapa began the work required for their next CREST award - the BP Technology CREST.  This award is offered by Te Aparangi - the Royal Society, who have a passion for students to learn about the physical, biological and social sciences.  We will be exploring elements of structural technology and engineering, tackling a diverse range of problem-solving challenges. 

Today's problems were to create a hurdle and a 'papminton' set using only newspaper, sellotape and a small amount of string.  As with the first attempt at all these challenges, there were some successes as well as some areas highlighted for development. 

The teams had to get used to working with new students and there was a lot of discussion around good teamwork - this will be a focus in the coming weeks.

Tournament of Minds INTERNATIONAL FINAL

What an experience!!  Darwin turned on the charm and hosted us for the Tournament of Minds International Final and it was fantastic.

At Wellington Airport, about to board our flight to Sydney.

We had a long journey to get there, finally arriving in Darwin at 4.30am NZ time on Friday morning.  Just a few short hours later we were up and on the bus, in incredible heat and humidity, and off to the TIF opening ceremony.  This was overseen by the local Larakia people as we were in their 'country'.  The atmosphere was buzzing as 600 kids from Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Hong Kong all came together to celebrate.  The opening ceremony gave us insight into the customs and seasons of the local indigenous people and was really interesting for the students to compare with home.   It was also where the Spirit of the Tournament was established.  At this level of the competition the main emphasis is not on winning, but on supporting each other, teamwork and friendship.  The hard work has been done - now its time to really enjoy what you do together. 

With the Queensland and HongKong Social Sciences teams.

Badge swapping is a huge part of the TIF.

Local Northern Territories schools provided the opening ceremony entertainment and then after some very welcome ice cream, it was off to Crocosaurus Cove.  Most of this time was spent inside in the cool dark reptile house enjoying the air conditioning!

The afternoon included a fascinating Learning Carnival led by Lee Watanabe Crockett.  Our team made the most of the opportunity to explore their strengths and weaknesses as a collective and to share with other teams as they tackled prioritising key global issues and how to combat them.

At the Thinking Carnival, brainstorming key global issues and strategies for overcoming them.

Meeting in Mrs Zhou's room to go over team strategies and roles for the upcoming lockdown challenge.

The next day saw us head out to Charles Darwin University for the Tournament proper.  Our team worked to their greatest capacity in their three-hour lockdown and enjoyed getting to know the Queensland social science team as they sat together to watch all the teams performances in the afternoon.  Whakarongo really showed great courage and resilience.  They were one of the youngest teams in the category and were up against teams who had attended multiple International Finals.  They created a fun solution that showcased many of their talents and the parents and I watching were so very proud of them.

Whakarongo were the greatest champions of the Longburn Adventist Team.

Talking to the judges after presenting our challenge solution.

Once all challenge solutions had been presented it was off to Nakara Primary School where there was a huge dance party, international handball games, giant bubbles and other activities to relax with.  This was my favourite part of the Tournament as we saw teams all mixed up, having fun and hanging out, laughing and eating dinner together.  It was really special to see the spirit of the Tournament in such a tangible way.

Outside the Darwin Entertainment Centre, prior to the Closing Ceremony.

The closing ceremony was such an exciting atmosphere.  Teams were so supportive of each other - kids stood to acknowledge the success of their state teams and their new friends.  Again, the Spirit of the Tournament at its best.  Whakarongo was proud to stand and support the Thailand team who overcame massive challenges and for the Northern Territories teams who had endeared themselves to us all. 

It wouldn't be TOM without Freddos!

Heading to the Jumping Crocs and Pudakul.

Sunday was a jam-packed day for us, we packed up and met our shuttle, heading out to Wulna country to join the Spectacular Jumping Crocodile cruise...after ensuring that all limbs were safely secured inside the boat, we set off down the river to spot some crocs.  We had fun watching Pearl, Trevor, Candy and Marilyn jump for their food - watch out for those teeth!  Then it was on to Pudakul to learn about DreamTime and local stories, to meet Graham and Tarisma as they showed us their traditional way of life.  Everyone braved the 37 degree heat to have a go at spear throwing - Louis and Prya had the best chance of catching us dinner!!

After our big afternoon, a long swim was in order.  Handstand competitions in the pool were a hit before we climbed back into shuttles to head out to Mindil Beach.  Hundreds of people were gathered on the sand of the cove to watch the sun go down, but with the risk of jellyfish and crocs, no one goes in the water.  Then it was time to explore the night markets.  Kiwis were treated like royalty with many vendors gifting local merchandise once the kids introduced themselves - a really fun night.

At 10.30pm it was time to head to the airport in order to meet our midnight flight back to Sydney, a very short night later we arrived there in time to make our flight back to Wellington, finally arriving home to Palmerston North seventeen hours after we left Darwin.

Still smiling in Sydney, about to board our flight to Wellington.

This was a fantastic opportunity for the students and parents to be a part of.  We are hugely grateful to the Board of Trustees and the PTA who supported us financially and made our attendance possible!  What an amazing Tournament season Whakarongo School had in 2018!

Senior Digital Engagement Trip

Due to unforeseen circumstances, our year 7/8 DigiCREST team were unable to complete their challenge this year.  As compensation, we headed to the City Library on Tuesday morning for a few hours working with Waka Curd, the Digital Engagement Librarian.

Zac, Caleb, and Nicholas had an absolute ball exploring a number of digital technologies...in a few cases - they were even teaching Waka!  The clear favourite was the Virtual Reality headset, but they also explored robots, programming the vinyl cutter to make decals, a drone hovercraft and a Lego Mindstorm kit.

Thanks Waka for your input - it was a super fun morning!

Nationals Success

How exciting to represent our school and our region at the National Final of Tournament of Minds last Saturday and Sunday (Sept 15/16).  Both our teams arrived at the student Hub at Victoria University, ready to compete and do us proud.

Family support was terrific - thank you so much!  and our two room supervisors, Sarah Best and Zuhra Arnautovic-Wootton, were stellar.

Both teams performed well for the judges and before their substantial audiences.  I was so pleased for the kids when they could come out and tell me that they had done their best - that's exactly what I wanted for them.

There was of course, an added bonus for the Year 5/6 team, who earned Honours in the Primary Social Science category.  This was tremendously exciting!!  I think everyone was then blown away to learn we had been invited to the International Final in Darwin, Australia in less than a months time!

Huge congratulations to both our teams on their successes - both personal and public - you are all fantastic!

Good Luck for the Nationals!

Good luck to our two teams heading off to the National Finals of Tournament of Minds this weekend.  The teams will compete against schools from around the country in a three-hour lock-down challenge.  Victoria University in Wellington is our host for this two-day event.

The teams have put in a lot of hard work in the last fortnight to prepare for this new style of challenge and there have been some clever and entertaining solutions created.

Have fun at the Nationals everyone - you've definitely earned your place.

3 Hour Challenges - TOM Practice

Well, after the outstanding success of our TOM teams, we have had a full-on week training for the Nationals.  The teams have run the full gamut of emotions, I think, as their teamwork and social skills have been tested to their limits.  The creative thinking and originality of ideas is vital at this level of competition, but the things that often sabotage this are the "softer skills".  It is a challenge to keep seven team members focussed and on track with a lot to accomplish in a long/short time frame.  Three hours seems long at the start but it whittles away and the final performance comes around really quickly.  Our teams are working so well, refining skills and character, to work closely as a team and produce results they can be proud of.

We are so lucky to have the community we do - the support of families is vital at this juncture - but these are life skills in action and the learning for these students is massive.

GATE Week 7

Busy busy!  Tournament of Minds and DigiCREST students have had fun this week.  The TOM teams are pulling their challenge solutions together ready for Saturday's regional tournament.  Scripts are being tweaked and staging / props being finalised.  The teams have worked so hard and now at this late hour are striving hard to work around illness and other commitments.  We wish them well for the event this weekend.

The digiCREST students reinforced previous learning about Binary Digits (Bits) using glockenspiels  which was noisy and fun! Individuals chose a 'Bit' and then had to be played by a conductor to create code for different numbers.  High notes were 'off' bits and low notes were 'on' bits.  It took careful concentration to play the codes correctly but everyone had a go at being the conductor and really got into the swing of it.

Then we built on programming knowledge gained last week.  Previously we have explored the roles of the programmer and the tester, looked at writing simple, clear codes and debugging errors.  Yesterday's activity involved the students creating code for various physical activities and then placing them in sequence.  Starts, stops, numbers of repetitions and loops were also added.  The 'programmes' were tested and debugged, with the student taking turns at being the robots following the programmes.  Energetic computer science!!