Thinkers’ Club Update

Last Tuesday we had our first gathering for our Junior School Thinkers’ Club. Over 30 eager students arrived with their brains switched on, their smiles radiating and their almost palpable enthusiasm. Mrs Holly Humphrey, Mrs Sue Zweck and myself were thrilled to cater to their excitement.

For our first meeting, we broke into groups and challenged ourselves with Brainteasers, visual code breakers and riddles. Our engineers were puzzled by the constraints provided to build their tall towers on a breezy day and our final group faced an authentic Opti-MINDS Challenge that required them to work backwards from a question to come up with their most creative response, as a team.

Each week will present different challenges and skill building, as we prepare our Thinkers for Week 9, when we will choose our Opti-MINDS Teams in readiness for the interschool competition in Term 3. Please note, all participating students (unless discussed otherwise) must be available to compete on Saturday 26^th August.

We have a ‘waiting list’ of about 20 students at present and I will contact families and students should any vacancies arise. We would appreciate if any currently enrolled students, who are no longer able to participate, can please let us know sooner rather than later.

HELP: Opti-MINDS is a non-profit competition that focuses on sustainability. We will require recycled boxes, tubes and containers to use in our challenges. If families can start collecting and storing their recycling, we would love to collect in Week 6 this term and again in Week 1 of Term 3. 

Mrs Lu Pollard, Thinkers’ Club Coordinator