Sharpest minds in the state

By Elisa Scarton
A GROUP of students from St Michael’s Primary School in Berwick has proven they’ve got the best minds in the state.
The team of seven Grade 5 and 6 students blew their competition away at the state finals of the Tournament of Minds, held at La Trobe University Bundoora on 15 September.
The winning team competed in the Applied Technology Division of the competition against five other regional school finalists, and were asked to envision a lost city.
Together they created a short play about the city, which they performed on tournament day with props and costumes they’d made themselves.
Team member Aiden Penn said he never imagined his team could win, but was very happy they had.
“Our group had to work together to solve clues like where the lost city was and what their culture was. It was quite hard, but it was also very rewarding,” he said.
“We presented our movie in front of the judges and an audience. We had to convince them we’d found the lost city. I really enjoyed the whole thing.”
The team was also given an impromptu challenge on the day where they were asked to think creatively on their feet without any outside help.
St Michael’s Primary School teacher Marisa Morando said the students had relished the challenge of working by themselves to create the short play.
“The students’ communication, encouragement of each other and co-operation skills enabled the group to achieve such excellent results,” Ms Morando said.
“This is the first year a team from St Michael’s has won their regional final, let alone the state final,” she said.
“They put in a lot of hard work and tremendous skill. We are incredibly proud of them.”
The young achievers are now off to Darwin, where they will represent Victoria in the Australasian finals in October.