Tournament of Minds Solutions

 Here are the solutions put together by our three teams...enjoy!

     Whakarongo 2

Whakarongo 3

Whakarongo 1 Link

Well done teams!! Great solutions!!

Whakarongo Technics

 Well done to the Whakarongo Technics (Charlotte Burt, Olivia Mildenhall, Aidan Harris and Nathan Morgan) on creating a super cool robotic creature for their Epro8 Challenge Solution.

They created "Perry the Platypus".  Perry had a central axel which was connect to four moving flippers and a tail.  Perry, being the only mammal to lay an egg, also had a crank handle operated egg delivery mechanism.

Be sure to check out their clip to see this beautifully designed creature in action.

While the team worked hard together and all took responsibility for completing the finished product, special mention needs to go to Nathan Morgan for designing the central mechanism that the team used as their foundation.

Great teamwork and great engineering!

Whakarongo Kreative Kiwis

 Our second Epro8 Team completed their robotic creature last week - they decided to contribute a robotic turtle to the Epro8 Robotic Zoo.  They worked really well as a team and had a creative explanation and design for their solution.  Have a look at their video to find out more about their creature.

Great work Beau, Hadi, Hami and Jensen!  

A working lunch, discussing their planned creation.

The video presentation to the Mayor...

The finished product, complete with crank handle operated flippers and a selfie camera!

Crossing the Finish Line

 What a week!  SO proud of our Tournament of Minds teams!  A huge push from our students to complete their filmed solutions and get their paperwork completed.  The last team had everything uploaded to the portal with 3 hours to spare (nothing like the energy of a looming deadline!)

Even with the stress and pressure of meeting the tournament expectations there was still laughter and jokes and terrific resilience.  I was especially grateful to see some of our Year 7 and 8 team members offering to help the younger team understand some of the paperwork intricacies that I (as facilitator) was not allowed to speak to.  

All the students who have been involved with TOM will receive written feedback from me along with peer observations.  These will be presented along with their certificates once the judging has been completed and the results are in.

Its not over for me however - wish me luck as I join two others to judge and feedback to the 46 teams competing from the Wellington region - its going to be a huge weekend but I am looking forward to seeing the solutions the students have created this year.

Here's are some photos of the past few days.

               

Sewing Success

 I wanted to show you all an exciting venture that has grown out of participation in Whakaaro for one of our students.

Lejla Arnautovic-Wootton is in year 7.  She has been a part of Whakaaro for several years and worked hard on developing her self and time management skills as well as exploring problem solving and creativity across a wide range of contexts and mediums.  She is a veteran of the Tournament of Minds competition, having been a member of the team who made it all the way to internationals in 2018, and has been part of the team to win honours at the national final, two years in a row.

Part of her skill development in TOM, required her to learn to make costumes.  Lejla took the opportunity to find out how to use the sewing machines at school.  From there, she has pursued her sewing, learning to create hair scrunchies and now, face masks.  Not only is Lejla creative, she is a competent entrepreneur with a great attitude towards expanding her reach.

Earlier this year, Lejla began developing a profile on Instagram to market and sell her products.  She has acquired a mentor and is building a successful enterprise.  

With over 400 scrunchies sold and her face masks now taking off as a second product line, Lejla is achieving something really exciting and is a terrific ambassador for our gifted education programme at Whakarongo.

If you would like to support her she can be found on Instagram at: 

                                            

The Whakarongo Knowledgeable Nifflers

 Lucy, Max, Josiah and Ben worked super hard in week 7 to create a giant robotic creature, meeting the criteria laid out for this years Epro8 Challenge.  They showed resilience and perseverance as they worked against a ticking clock to complete their build.  There is still a reporting component for the team to complete next week but their Alicorn (a pegasus / unicorn hybrid) was a unique choice and a challenging animal to take on.

Here are some images of their process and their completed Alicorn...

The video presentation

And the completed creature:  well done team!