Mooloolah State School punches above its weight in academic competition
MOOLOOLAH State School is punching above its weight with recent wins at the regional Opti-MINDS competition proving size doesn’t matter.
The school walked away with wins in two out of four categories at the regional Opti-MINDS competition and has now been invited to attend the Queensland State finals.
The Opti-MINDS challenge is a school team challenge which pushes kids to think, create and communicate in various problem-solving activities in an array of disciplines. It allows children to solve demanding, open-ended challenges to stimulate their minds and express their knowledge and creativity.
The school entered four teams from years 3 to 6, ultimately winning the Science Engineering and Social Sciences categories.
Mooloolah also received honours in the Language Literature and Media Communications categories, as well as winning a spirit award for their team work and problem-solving skills.
School Principal, Michael Forrest, said it was an amazing outcomes and praised the students and teachers for their efforts.
“This is an amazing achievement for our small school to win two out of four of the categories and come out on top over schools who have been competing for over 30 years and are much larger than ours,” he said.
“We are all so proud of you and congratulations on both teams making it to the State Finals.”
Opti-MINDS lead teacher, Kirsten Noe, said she was incredibly proud of the students. “I’m absolutely proud, we are just a little school so to be able to come away with so many awards, I always say to the kids that the success is actually getting there on the day,” she said.
“Those challenges take so much thinking and planning and preparation, so really the celebration is to get there on the day and you’ve got a performance and you got to get up in front of the judges and do it, anything else is just a bonus.
“The kids had to really learn how to work together, each student struggled at one point or another, but their resilience and perseverance shone through and it helped them build their confidence as well through this process.”
The theme for Opti-MINDS 2023 was ‘giving something a voice’.
“Each team had a challenge which took eight weeks to complete, and within each category they had a different challenge, and would have to write a story on their solution, and then perform a play to demonstrate their findings,” Kirsten said.
“The science engineering category team had to give something a voice, so they came up with a story of a group of kids teasing a red belly black snake, and they created a marble run inspired device to give the snake a voice.
“The social science category team had to explain why one of two tribes didn’t have a voice, which they credited to being shy and tired due to not having access to good quality food, exercise or education, which gave them a voice to confront the other tribe and ask for equal rights.”