Tournament of Minds Team Win 2016 Australian Pacific Championships

 
News date: 
21/10/2016

Marymede Catholic College would like to congratulate to our Secondary Mathematics and Engineering Tournament of Minds team who recently competed in the Australasian Pacific Finals in the Gold Coast and were crowned CHAMPIONS of their division!

This win breaks a 10 year drought for Victorian Schools in the category and is an outstanding achievement for all involved.

To qualify for this event, Team Marymede had to first win the Regional Finals and then the State Finals. The 2016 Tournament of Minds Australasian Pacific Finals were held at Griffith University, Gold Coast on the 15th of October, 2016. Winners from all the states and territories in Australia as well as teams from New Zealand and Thailand took part in the APF this year.

The Maths & Engineering competitors were given the challenge of building a device that would extract a table tennis ball placed inside an inverted plastic cup which in turn was placed on a slant table. The whole setup was covered by a 20 cm open wall and the cup and the ball had to be extracted from above the wall without losing either. The students were giving some bamboo sticks, paper and fishing lines to build the device. The team which extracts the ball and the cup in the fastest time recieves the maximum points. The demonstration of the device has to be incorporated into a performance of 10 minutes. Students were also required to make props for their performance using recycled materials. The preparation time for the script, device, props, explanation of mathematics behind the device and rehearsals was just 3 hours.

In each of the stages (Regional, State and Australasian Pacific), teams must also complete a spontaneous challenge. The students are given three minutes to discuss and one minute to present the solution for the challenge. At APF 2016, the challenge was to identify a moment of time they would like to freeze and the reason for their choice. The teams are judged on their team work, creativity of their choice and explanation.

The presentation ceremony for APF 2016 was held at the dolphin beach in Sea World. The teams relaxed with a wonderful dolphin show put together by the organisers. After the show, with heartbeats rising every minute, Marymede Catholic College was crowed Australasian Pacific Champions in the Engineering Mathematics Secondary Division for 2016 – the first Victorian School to win this division since 2005.

Fun Fact: The last time a Victorian School were crowned champions in this division - Marymede Catholic College did not even exist!

Congratulations to the winning team members - we are extremely proud of your achievements!

2016 Australasian Pacific Champions - Secondary Maths and Engineering

Claudia Pironi (Year 7) 
Nicholas Melchiorre (Year 7)
Jarnai Brancaleone (Year 7)
Adam Argyros (Year 9)
Daniel Preziuso (Year 9)
Laura Daniele (Year 10)
Ricardo Krstevski (Year 10)