Da Vinci Decathlon Academic Challenge

Well done to all 40 students who represented the College at the Queensland Da Vinci Decathlon this week. The Decathlon is designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and General Knowledge. More than 170 teams from some of the most prestigious schools in the state participated and competition was fierce!

Congratulations to our Year 7 team who came first in the Mathematics competition and our Year 8 team who came second in the Ideation Discipline Challenge. This is an exceptional accomplishment on our first attendance at this event.

“18^18, geothermal heat pump, American Independence, Numerology and a 5.00am start are just some of the problems we encountered during the Da Vinci Decathlon, held last week on the Gold Coast. Our Year 7 and 8 team made the two hour journey south to represent Pacific in a 10 subject (decathlon) competition on Thursday 25^th May. The subjects ranged from the traditional Mathematics, English, Science and Mapping to the more modern general knowledge, ideation and creative producers and finally, the Da Vinci specialties of engineering and code breaking. The competition required teamwork, endurance, consistency and brain power to achieve success. The theme was ‘power’, which could be interpreted in many ways and the way you interpreted it could have changed your success in the day. Overall, the Decathlon will be remembered from two perspectives, the perspective of fun and the perspective of a big challenge. I look forward to going back next year to put our mark on the competition.” – Lachlan

Thank you to Mrs Melissa Ousley, Mrs Sonia Boland, Mrs Wendy Wescombe, Mrs Elley Wood, Mrs Claire Richards, Mr Andrew Block, Miss Rebecca Ross and pre-service teachers Ms Michael and Mr Sedgewick for their support of our students during preparation and at the competition. Thank you also to Ms Trish McLerie, our bus driver over the three days of competition.

Mrs Jo Belchamber, Head of Learning Enrichment