Kenakena School Tops NZ - May Not Afford To Go To Next Level

Kenakena School Tops New Zealand But May Not Afford To Go To the Next Level

Teams of students from Kenakena School in Paraparaumu have won two of the New Zealand categories in this year’s problem solving Tournament of the Minds. A total of sixty teams participated from throughout the country.

The Kenakena teams now have the opportunity to take part in the Australasia-Pacific contest in Canberra in the middle of October if the school can obtain funds, at very short notice, for the fourteen children to travel and be accommodated.

The New Zealand event required each seven member team to work together for six weeks, without adult assistance, to solve a problem in a specific discipline. Then they presented the results to judges through acting, dancing and singing, in a ten minute period. The children produced their own scripts and props after first carefully analysing the pre-set problem.

To win the year 7/8 Language Literature challenge, the Kenakena team incorporated two clearly defined characters into their own original book script and presented the story to the judges by acting it out as a picture book.

Kenakena’s winning Social Sciences team, also year 7/8, chose three people in different occupations, linked in a way that they needed to keep secret. They chose to depict a pilot, a lip singer and a computer programmer.

In addition, on the day, each team was given a spontaneous challenge that they needed to solve in three minutes. The teams needed to incorporate the phrase “eat your words,” link them to food and explain why? One of the Kenakena teams actually made up a word, explaining its meaning and usage.

Judges endorsed the Kenakena teams as very creative, high in energy, out of the box thinking and group participation.

The Australasia-Pacific Final, to be held in Canberra on 19 October is an opportunity for the Kenakena teams to pit themselves against the best in Australasia and the Pacific.

School Principal, Bruce McDonald, says parents of the team members will decide tomorrow night (Tuesday 17 September), if the trip to Canberra is affordable. “It is only likely to be possible through sponsorship and fundraising activities in a very short timeframe” he says. It’s likely to cost about $14,000 to get the children there and adults also need to accompany them.

He is very keen that businesses and organisations willing to sponsor/contribute contact him urgently.

The children will face different challenges in Australia. They will have three hours to solve a problem, script their response and make the properties to go with their presentation. There’ll also be a different spontaneous challenge.

ENDS

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