SHREWSBURY'S STEM STARS

In March two teams from Year 5 and 6, the Storm and the Stars, participated in the Thailand division of the annual 'Tournament of Minds' competition at Bangkok Prep.

The ToMs programme is designed to help students develop diverse skills, enterprise, time management and collobarative working within a fun-competitive environment, and has quickly emerged as one of the most popular inter-school programmes in the Australia-Pacific region. Teams solve problems from a choice of disciplines including applied technology, language literature, maths engineering and social sciences with the aim of promoting transferable skills; teamwork and risk-taking, creativity and promoting self-learning.

In addition to a spontaneous challenge, the competition was a chance for Shrewsbury’s young masterminds to present their long-term projects to the judging panel in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) category of the competition. The presentation was a culmination several weeks of preparation throughout Term 2, in which the teams were tasked with designing and building a unique robotic organism, no bigger than 30x30x30cm, and which called on their application of science, maths, and engineering skills.

Ms Russo, Co-Facilitator said “Both teams showed incredible dedication throughout the project. They gave up much of their free-time both at lunch time and on their weekends to ensure their projects and presentation were of high quality.”

Mr Cuthbertson added, "One of the most challenging aspects of Tournament of Minds is that no adult support is allowed. The pupils achieved everything on their own through team work and determination. At times they had to problem-solve and overcome setbacks, without being able to rely on adults. The pupils showed maturity, and real commitment to the task and each other.”

Both teams presented their projects extremely well, with SHR Stars claiming the winning title in their category. Well done to all involved.