Five Port Douglas State School students participated in the Opti-MINDS Challenge at Cairns Regional Finals at JCU on Sunday and now are off to the state finals at UQ in October.

Opti-MINDS is a dynamic celebration of innovation, talent and creative problem solving abilities over a six week Challenge process held in term 3 each year.

Participants work together in teams and are required to solve open-ended Futures Thinking Challenges in one of the areas of Language Literature, Science Engineering or Social Sciences. Teams are also required to respond to a “Spontaneous’ Challenge.  

The five students heading off to the University of Queensland in October are (pictured L-R) Gwyneth Dowell, Grace Richardson, Tali Hoye, Grace Jones and Vanessa Lundstrom-Postlewaighy, and they are super excited.

The benefits the students thought they enjoyed the most focussed around team work, performance and role play.  Gwyneth said “ I enjoyed the spontaneous challenge it was very exciting, you didn’t know what to expect and you had ten minutes to figure it out.”

“You got to perform for your family and friends,” said Grace Richardson. Tali commented “that making stuff and helping each other,” was a big benefit to her. “Getting together as a group and performing,” was Grace Jones’ favourite part of participating.  While Vanessa said “it’s a good chance to figure out challenges with a team and have fun.”

The PDSS division included students from P-6 and it is their sixth year of participation with a total of 23 schools participating.  The aim is to enhance the potential of all participants by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management and the ability to work collaboratively within a challenging and demanding environment. While the process encourages participants to ‘be the best that they can be’.

At no stage are teams compared to one another and they are assessed as to how well they have met the Challenge criteria.  All participants benefit from the process and competitiveness is down played.

While congratulations are in order and the students enjoy their recognition for a presentation that has been a result of six weeks of effective preparation, group cohesion and problem solving skills, they are now setting their sights on the Opti-MINDS Finals and 20/20 Opti-VISION Youth Forum in October.