P&C supports the Ascot Opti-Minds team to go to the Regional and State Finals

On the weekend of 18th – 19th October, Olive, Franki, Tilly, Olivia, Ilina, Noor and Aadhya, Ascot’s Opti-Mind team “Junior Intelli-bots” competed in the Opti-Minds State Finals at the University of Queensland.

It was a weekend of excitement and pleasure. The theme for the competition was “Integrity”. Integrity means doing the right thing when no one is watching.

On Saturday, first we had an opening ceremony for the 590 students from all across Queensland. Then our Opti-Minds team competed in a 3-hour unknown challenge that involved writing and preparing a play, including making props, about an Integrity Statue being stolen. We all had to work together to come up with a solution. We wrote an excellent play that we presented to the judges, our families and the other teams. We all had such a blast when we performed!

When all of the teams finished their performances, we headed to the Opti-Minds Disco and BBQ for dinner! There were songs, laughter and loads of great dancing. It was one wild and crazy disco. We then went home to bed so we could be ready for the next day.

Our Sunday morning, we started early again, setting up for the Youth Forum. We had to design something that would improve the world and present it in a market stall. We thought that there was too much rubbish in the world, and we wanted to keep our world and school a clean and healthy environment. Another reason why we chose rubbish is because the amount of bin chickens (Ibis's) that are in our school is a huge number and they always poop everywhere. We invented a system to trade an ice cream container of rubbish for a treat. And we wrote a funny song called “Bin Chicken”.

Sunday was an exciting day for all of us, and it was so much fun seeing all the other stalls from different schools.

Even though we didn't get a place, our team gave it a go and showed loads of integrity throughout the weekend.

We want to thank our generous P&C who supported our entries to the Regional and State Finals.

Opti-Minds was so much fun, and we recommend others get involved in this amazing experience next year.

By Franki, Noor and Aadhya and team