Hundreds of entrants, 44 schools, one day and ten gruelling academic challenges; the Da Vinci Decathlon is certainly not for the faint hearted.
Hundreds of entrants, 44 schools, one day and ten gruelling academic challenges; the Da Vinci Decathlon is certainly not for the faint hearted.
Notorious for its difficult problems that are designed to test the limits of high achieving students, the Da Vinci Decathlon is often enough to make adults scratch their heads. The ten disciplines tested during the competition are engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy. All Saints fielded two teams of eight students, one from Year 5 and one from Year 6, all of whom are participants in the school鈥檚 Infinity Program. The Year 6 team took out first prize overall, also placing first in the art and poetry field, and third in both the English and mathematics fields. Year 6 captain Liev Tuckwell was proud of his team for winning despite stiff competition and mind-boggling challenges. 鈥淚t was a bit overwhelming to go up against schools from all over Queensland, but we were really happy to find out that we won,鈥� says Liev.
鈥淭his competition is a celebration of Leonardo da Vinci himself, in that he wasn鈥檛 just a painter 鈥� he was a writer, an engineer, a poet and much more鈥�鈥� Bridget Allars, Infinity Coordinator
Although the Year 5 team didn鈥檛 take out the top gong, they did perform extremely well, winning the legacy and mathematics categories, placing second in cartography and ideation and third in English.
The Year 5s were captained by Ronan Walker, who says all participants learned some vital life lessons on the day.
鈥淚f you just put your heart and soul into what you do, you will come out with a very good result,鈥� says Ronan. 鈥淪ome tasks I felt were going to be impossible to figure out… but it shows what happens when everyone chips in.鈥�
Infinity Program Coordinator Bridget Allars is extremely proud of the way in which her students problem-solved collaboratively and believes they truly embodied the Decathlon's namesake.
鈥淭his competition is a celebration of Leonardo da Vinci himself, in that he wasn鈥檛 just a painter 鈥� he was a writer, an engineer, a poet and much more,鈥� says Mrs Allars.
"The take-home message was for students to remember the interconnected nature of knowledge and realise that possibilities are endless if you embrace learning with a lifelong passion".
鈥淚鈥檓 so proud of their motivation, their level of task commitment and perseverance. Even before they walked into that competition, they were champions in our eyes.鈥�
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