Technology and innovation – how does one influence the other?
It’s something that hundreds of students from across the region explored on 3-5 April at the eleventh Northern NSW da Vinci Decathlon, hosted by The Armidale School.
Over three days more than 430 boys and girls from 17 department, independent and Catholic primary and secondary schools worked in teams of eight to complete ten academic challenges – each challenge falling within the subject areas of Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and Legacy (significant people, inventions and events).
“Every year there is a different overarching theme for all the challenges – and this year it is technology and innovation, which provided plenty of scope for students to use their creativity about what could be possible,” said TAS organiser Mrs Donella Tutt.
Devised by Knox Grammar School, da Vinci Decathlons are now held in various centres around Australia and in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. TAS has been partnering Knox in delivering the event to the region for more than a decade and its appeal continues to endure, Mrs Tutt said.
Along the way are general knowledge quizzes and other games to add to the fun. For the first time, Knox alumni were not present for this year’s competition, with quizmaster duties being handled by Year 11 TAS students Millie Coupland and Sam Guppy, both da Vinci graduates.
“I really like the way it brings together people as a team and because everyone has different interests, they can work together to solve the challenges,” said Athena Li, a member of the winning TAS Year 6 team.”
“My favourite was the maths challenge, because we go to do stuff that we don’t normally do in class.” Mrs Tutt said TAS was pleased to again be able to offer the unique academic extension event to students from right across the region.
Honours were shared around the schools, with the winners of each division now eligible for the State Final at Knox Grammar School next month: Armidale City Public School (Year 5), The Armidale School (Year 6 and Year 9), Armidale Secondary College (Year 7 and Year 10) and Macquarie Anglican Grammar School, Dubbo (Year 8).
Schools attending the 2024 Northern NSW da Vinci Decathlon are:
Armidale
The Armidale School
Armidale City Public School
Armidale Secondary College
Armidale Waldorf School
Ben Venue Public School
Martins Gully Public School
New England Girls’ School
O’Connor Catholic College
PLC Armidale
One School Global
Inverell
Holy Trinity School
Gunnedah
St Mary’s College
Narrabri
Narrabri High School
Tamworth
Calrossy Anglican School
Walcha
St Patrick’s Primary School
Walcha Central School
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