Tournament of Minds
The Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a school competition program available throughout Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Teams of students work to solve problems in a number of disciplines, including: applied technology, language and literature, mathematics and engineering, and social sciences. Students form teams of seven and work together to solve both spontaneous and long term challenges. The spontaneous challenges last several minutes and require creativity and teamwork to answer, while the long term challenges last six weeks and rely heavily on the cooperation of all team members to ensure that on Challenge Day, the performance (which lasts ten minutes) goes smoothly. Students are required to prepare their work without the assistance of adults. At the performances, students are required to be dressed in black. The program runs through the third school term, commonly commencing in the first week back at school.
The Senior (High School) Winners of the 2013 Asia Pacific finals were as follows: Social Science: St Johns College, Woodlawn, (NSW); Maths & Engineering: The Knox School (VIC); Language & Literature: Walford Anglican School (SA); Applied Technology: St Peter's College (SA).