Students from Buderim Mountain State School Sunshine Coast won the national Language and Literature category of the Opti-MINDS competition final recently. The winning team com-prised of seven students from grade four to six, who demonstrated their problem-solving abilities in a series of challenges over two days. The school also had a second team compete in the Social Sciences category.
“This is the first time Buderim students have won the Australian final. We are incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication that led to this team’s success,” said school princi-pal, Neil Jenkins. “Having two teams compete at the national level is a testament to our entire school community and values. All of our students performed exceptionally.”
Buderim Mountain State School students earned their way to the national final after win-ning seven awards at the regional Opti-MINDS event in August. The annual problem-solving competition encourages creative thinking and teamwork and has three catego-ries: Language and Literature, Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences. Overall, 106 teams from both private and state schools competed in the finals.
To win the Language and Literature title, Buderim students presented concerns and ide-as on the diminishing amount of green spaces within urban communities and explored the economic and environmental complexities of over-fishing. They then participated in a three-hour team challenge and a spontaneous ten-minute assessment.
Buderim Mountain State School, Sunshine Coast, will now retain the state and national trophies for the next 12 months.