3 May 2022
Introducing the winning Decathlon Team!! A massive congratulations to this Year 5 team who won convincingly today against TRAC and Sturt Public at the Regional da Vinci Decathlon. Eight students competed across 10 disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and legacy.
The students had worked hard to prepare for today, taking extra classes during break times, after school and in the holidays with the support of staff and parents who mentored them through the different subjects. A massive thank you to Kimberley Scriven (creative producers), Brooke Scriven (English), Dr Lachlan Brown of Charles Sturt University (Art and Poetry), Alesha Alcorn (Legacy, Ideation), Trevor Gyles (Mathematics) and Blake Cunningham (Cartography) for the time you contributed to the team.
The team of ten students (including reserves) were: Anneliese Azer, Harry Bergmeier, Louis Bergmeier, Hamish Brown, Katherine Hyde, Claire McCormick, Liam Robinson, Mackenzie Wilcox, and reserves, Archer Harrison and Mia Owers.
Here is a summary of the experience from a team member's perspective:
"The participants of the da Vinci Decathlon had a lot of fun during the event, and we all thought it was a very important and helpful experience for us. When we arrived at The Riverina Anglican College, we were very happy to be there, because we had been training for weeks!
At the hall, we sat down at our table, number 501, and looked around, analysing the other teams. We were excited to see some of our friends from soccer training and church also participating. Then our MC, Mr Tyndal (Chaplain at TRAC), started announcing what events we would be doing first. We did Science, Creative Producers, Ideation and English straight up.
When the timer started, we all dived onto the table to grab the envelopes, rip them open, and throw the contents at someone to do. We split up, so only a couple of people would be doing one thing. All the papers were very challenging, getting us to do things that we didn’t know yet, but all in all we did well. Then we had a very short break for recess, and back into the hall we went!
Second session we completed Mathematics, Engineering, Art and Poetry, and Cartography! Again, we split up to maximise our chances of finishing all the papers. The Mathematics paper was incredibly difficult, including some challenges that were well beyond our year level. After lunch, there was only two final papers to complete, Legacy and Code Breaking. Both were very hard, and some of the questions we didn’t finish, but we got there in the end.
After all the papers were finished, we then played a few fun games with Mr Tyndal, and then came the awards. For our efforts, Wagga Wagga Christian College received six firsts, two seconds and two thirds, and came first overall! We also won a box of chocolates for the best table decoration. The da Vinci Decathlon was a riveting experience for all of us, and we are looking forward to participating in the State competition."
by Hamish Brown, Year 5
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