Creative Problem Solving

Tournament of Minds was held at UWS Milperra yesterday. What a great atmosphere - kids in crazy recycled costumes, sausage sizzle, parents, friends, teachers. I was judging all day and our school had two teams competing. If your school does not enter Tournament of Minds you could bring it to their attention. It is a six week long term challenge where a team of seven students from grades 3-6 solve a problem and present it in dramatic form. Props and costumes can only be made from allowable materials, which includes a lot of recycled junk, garbage bags, cellophane, cardboard etc.

No outside assistance is allowed, so the teachers and parents simply facilitate the group to write their own ten minute script and make their own costumes. On the day the team also solve a spontaneous problem in four minutes with two minutes to present their solution. I was judging this section - it was fascinating to watch the teamwork and higher-order thinking skills in action.
 
There are many outside competitions which are a great addition to a school's Gifted & Talented program

Did you know?

Gifted children vary a lot. Some are great at sports. Some have disabilities. Children can be gifted or not along one or more of a large number of dimensions. Labels like "gifted" need to be used carefully as all children are different.

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The blogs appearing on the NSWAGTC site are designed to provide colour, news and subjective views about the many issues and concerns facing gifted children and their parents, care-givers and educators.

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Other NSWAGTC blogs are written by individuals with experience of gifted children from one or more perspectives - for example Cate's Blog is from the viewpoint of a primary school teacher and parent of gifted children. These blogs are written solely by the person identified and represent his or her views, rather than necessarily those of the NSWAGTC.

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