Da Vinci Decathlon Success

In Week 3, Tangara students from Years 5 to 11 competed in the annual Da Vinci Decathlon, hosted by Knox Grammar School. It is a state-wide competition designed to challenge the creativity and knowledge of each participant, with 10 categories, English, Maths, Art and Poetry, Ideation, Science, Engineering, Code Breaking, Creative Producers, Cartography and Legacy.

Eight girls from each grade were up against hundreds of other schools, with almost 2,000 total competitors each day. This year, for the first time, Knox organised for the event to take place online. It was a completely new experience for everyone involved, and we were so fortunate to have Mr Cohen Bosworth and Mrs Rasmussen taking care of everything technical, as well as Mrs Bannon and several other supervising teachers on hand to make sure things went smoothly. 

Training took place at lunchtime every week, in which past papers and activities for each category were completed where the girls worked hard to improve their thinking and team work. On the day, we all learned so much about teamwork as each student utilised their different strengths. Everyone managed to work together to complete all the assigned examinations. Perseverance was particularly evident in working through the difficulties of each paper. Most of the content was not part of the content taught in school, as the tasks encourage students to stretch their problem-solving abilities and think outside of the box. 

Overall, it was such a beneficial experience, as it enabled us to collaborate with other students in our grade, while also extending our expertise in each area. We enjoyed a breakfast together to celebrate our learning.

On behalf of all the participants, we would like to thank Mrs Dirckze (Years 7-11) for organising the teams and training sessions and making this opportunity possible. 

Every student should feel proud of their performance.

Brigid, Year 11