Tournaments of the Minds

Clearwater Bay School (CWBS)hosted the 6th annual Hong Kong Tournament of the Minds (TOMS) on 10 May 2014.More than 200 students in 31 teams from ten international schools participated,making it the biggest TOMS tournament staged in Hong Kong.

The TOMS is a creative problemsolving “competition” designed to encourage students to develop theircooperative problem solving skills and their creative and critical thinking. Ithas been run in Australia and New Zealand schools for 20 year.

In the competition, teams ofseven students work together over a six week period to solve a long termchallenge in either social studies, language literature or maths engineeringcategories. On the TOMS day, they present their solution to a panel of judges.The team must also solve an unseen spontaneous challenge which often involvesvery creative thinking.

In the primary section, thePeak School maths engineering team won their competition by building a devicethat made a sound at selected times given by the judges on the day. GermanSwiss International School and CWBS became the winners in language literatureand social studies respectively. In the secondary section, Renaissance Collegewon in both social sciences and maths engineering competitions.

“Ourteam did very well, giving a highly creative and polished presentation in theirlong term challenge watched by a small, but appreciative audience,” said CWBSPrincipal Chris Hamilton. All winners were awarded certificates and a trophy tocelebrate their success.