Tournament of Minds

Last weekend our Tournament of Minds Team (TOM) competed in the
2019 Regional Competition. TOM offers teams of students the opportunity
to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent
thinking while developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and
teamwork. Teams are required to work together on a long term challenge for
six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents and peers. They are
encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour
to produce a creative and original way to communicate their solution to others.
On competition day they also participate in a Spontaneous Challenge which
requires quick, creative thinking skills. Throughout their long term challenge our
St Albans teams showed amazing teamwork producing 2 quality performances.
Kāhu North team performed 'A Kiwi Quest' winning 1st place and Kāhu South
team performed 'The Wizard of Aus' winning 2nd place honours. We are so very
proud of all the hard work these two teams have put into planning, preparation and
developing polished performances.

Robo-Cup 2019

Robocup 2019

Last Saturday two St Albans teams competed at the Robocup competition.
Our teams have spent weeks under the expert tuition of Sam Pelham, designing,
building and coding their robots to meet the criteria of the competition. The Rescue
team competed in 4 rounds which included 4 different courses.  After 2 rounds it
was a quick return to the pits to make adjustments for the final 2 rounds. The Soccer
team had two robots- a player and a goalie. They competed against an Intermediate
team playing 3 games in total. Final result 2-1 to the opposition. A BIG congratulations
to both our teams for developing awesome robots, clever codes and being awesome
competitors.

Robocup Soccer team from left: Kody, Sam, Harry,Sam Y,Emily, Sam G (Absent Joe)

                                            

Robocup Rescue team from left: Lachlan, Luci, Nate Kody, Lachlan, Neave

                             

T     

Epro8 Challenge

Congratulations to our 2 St Albans teams who competed in the Epro8

Challenge this week. From left: 
The St Albans Circuits: Jinudhi, Charlie, Sophie and Ben

The St Albans Circuits: Lachlan, Bella, Harry and Stella

Both teams finished a very credible 5th equal competing against tough
competition and solving tricky challenges. They made St Albans proud by
competing in the spirit of the competition, showing excellent teamwork and
problem solving skills. A BIG thank you to our parent helpers and supporters.

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Epro8 Challenge

This week our 2 teams were preparing for their Epro 8 Challenge competition that they will be competing in next week.  They had 2 and a half hours to complete a variety of challenges.

Out teams include:

• Lachlan F, Harry F, Bella Stella
• Charlie, Sophie B, Ben and Jinudhi

At the Epro8 Challenge competition teams compete to:

• build large sized structures
• solve practical problems
• engineer using pulleys, motors, gears, wheels and axles
• invent machines that can complete simple tasks
• undertake unusual and fun experiments.
• construct basic electronic circuits.
• solve interesting problems using practical maths

Each team of four will be based at a workstation containing an impressive 

assortment of easy to use parts and equipment. Teams will be given a booklet 

containing a number of challenges. All the challenges are of an entertaining physical nature.

Teams will choose which challenges they wish to undertake. The harder the 

challenge, the more points it is worth. There is not enough time to finish all 

the challenges - so strategy is required to know which ones to go for.

Here are some of our team members working on their practice challenges.

Challenge 1: Create a 4 wheel driverless scooter that can move without humans 

moving it.

Challenge 2: Create an alien with 5 distinctive 'alien' features that moves under a barrier without a person coming within 2m of the alien. These were great challenges that challenged creative thinking, problem solving and team work. 

 

NZ Children's Book Awards and Writers Workshop

This week 21 enthusiastic

writers attended the NZ

Children’s Book Awards which featured a selection of the finalists at St Margarets

College. We heard 3 writers

speak: Kirsten Slade writer of
The Mapmakers Race,

Sarah Pepperle writer of

Art-tastic and James T Guthrie

writer of Bulls Eye Bella. 

After the Book Awards session author James T Guthrie came back to St Albans to run

a writing session with our group of writers. The children had an awesome afternoon

learning more about the process of writing and of writing a book.  The activity they did was called the Writers Dice where the children created a table of words that had to be included in their story. This was challenging and created some very funny stories! Once the children had finished writing they joined James in presenting their creative writing to the group.

Some of the key learning to be an awesome writer was to persevere, to show not tell,
to edit, edit(rework/re-craft) and edit some more. It was very cool to work alongside a published

writer!

GATE Update

Over the next few weeks we have teams of children participating in the following events:

Monday 5th August- NZ Book awards and Writers Workshop with
James Guthrie author of Bullseye Bella.

We have a selection of children from Year 4-6 who are attending the
NZ Book Awards at St Margarets College. They will get to hear various
authors present their work. Following the awards they will have a Writers
Workshop with author James Guthrie to develop their craft of writing.
We are very excited to be working with James.

Tuesday 13th August- Epro 8 Challenge.  We have two teams entered in
the Epro8 Challenge which is a competition, an engineering and problem
solving race. Read more here about this event.

Saturday 24th August Robocup: We have two teams entered in this competition
in two events: Robo-Soccer and Robotic Rescue. These teams have been busy
building their competition robots under the expert tuition of Sam Pelham. A big thank
you to Sam for all her work with the team.

Saturday 31st August- Tournament of Minds(TOM): Tournament of Minds is an opportunity for students with a passion for learning and problem solving to demonstrate their skills and talents in an exciting, vibrant and public way.

Teams are required to work together on a Long Term Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents or peers. They are encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour to produce their best possible solution. They develop a creative and original way to communicate this solution to others, working within predefined parameters such as limited materials, complex challenge criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day.The Tournament process provides a platform for excellence and equips participants with twenty-first century skills and strategies.

Objectives

• Provide the stimulation of real, open-ended challenges
• Develop creative problem solving approaches and techniques
• Foster cooperative learning and team work
• Promote knowledge and appreciation of self and others
• Encourage experimentation and risk taking
• Expand and reward creative and divergent thinking
• Stimulate a spirit of inquiry and a love of learning
• Develop enterprise
• Celebrate excellence

Our teams have been working hard over the past term developing
their creativity, collaboration, communication and problem solving skills.

2019 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS FOR SCHOOLS(ICAS)

ICAS will be online this year, with only ICAS Writing for Year 4 & 5 on paper.  

Registrations are now closed for the 2019 ICAS exams and Australian
Maths Competition. 

The dates for the 2019 examinations are below.

Australian Maths Competition- Thursday 1st August 2019Digital Technologies – Tuesday 3 September 2019
Science – Thursday 5 September 2019
Writing – Tuesday 10 September 2019
Spelling – Thursday 12 September 2019
English – Tuesday 17 September 2019
Mathematics – Thursday 19 September 2019

Good luck to all our teams competing over the next few weeks and to those that have opted into sitting the ICAS exams and AMC competition.

Welcome to our GATE BLOG 2019

2019 ICAS and Australian Maths Competitions

Each year at St Albans we offer Year 4-6 children the opportunity to participate in formal competitions
run by UNSW Educational Assessment, Australia.  The tests are called International Competitions and
Assessments for Schools (ICAS). These tests cover six curriculum areas and are designed to test and
report to schools and parents on a variety of skills within subjects.  A charge is made to cover each paper.
Papers are quite challenging so are best suited to learners showing a particular strength or interest in the
subject.

Our school has been participating in these tests for a number of years and we have been pleased with the
opportunities that the children have been given and the results that have been achieved.  Certificates are
awarded for High Distinction, Distinction, Credit and Participation. Parents are provided with a detailed
report showing strengths and weaknesses. For more information and ways to prepare visit
http://www.eaa.unsw.edu.au

We have also taken part in a second maths competition run by the Australian Mathematics Trust. This is a
competitive paper and will be good for children who enjoy the challenge of problem solving in maths.  
This is a one off test where the children have 60 minutes to work through 30 questions. As with the
UNSW competitions, children receive a certificate and report indicating their achievement. Sample
questions are available online at: www.amt.edu.au

This year these assessments are not being run until September in Term 3. We will send a form
home at the beginning of term 2 for those children that are interested. At this time it will also be
advertised in the newsletter and spare copies will be available in the office.

Subjects offered include:
Digital technologies

Science
Writing
Spelling
English
Mathematics
Australia Maths Competition.

Any queries please see or email Mrs Lidstone

jo.lidstone@stalbans.school.nz

GATE Coordinator

Deputy Principal