LEAP Students Shine in Problem-Solving Competition
04 November 2023
Participants of the 2023 Creative Edge Thinking Challenge Floyd, Zane, Will and Bayden from St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Margaret River want to inspire their peers to flourish, push their boundaries and solve problems in a more efficient way.
The Creative Edge Challenge, supported by Curtin University, Rio Tinto, Print and Communication Specialists is an innovative problem-solving competition that draws some of the brightest young minds from across the Southwest region. This year, the competition was centered on three distinct disciplines based on a challenge: with each team choosing one discipline. Literature and Communication based on “A picture paints a thousand words,” Society and Environment based on “Those who follow – Will the choices we make today have a lasting effect on those who follow?” and Science and Engineering based on “Moving up.”
The St Thomas team of students chose the third challenge ‘Moving Up!’, crafting a compelling presentation and constructing a device to launch a basketball 30cm into the air. The design used a complex lever and pulley system that caught and lifted the basketball, proving to be a test of the team’s engineering acumen.
Floyd, Year 6 said, “I enjoyed the experience because we worked through all our challenges together and it was exciting when the project was a success.”
“This experience has taught me perseverance, teamwork, and creative problem-solving. It was so much fun,” Zane, Year 5 said.
Will, Year 4 added, “We are so thrilled to have been a participant in this challenge with other schools in WA and I can’t wait to go back to my school community and share all the knowledge we were so blessed to gain from this experience.”
“I enjoyed working with my teammates from different Years and it just shows that we all had something amazing to contribute to this project. I hope other students from our school are inspired to take up this challenge if they get the chance to, in coming years,” Bayden, Year 3 concluded.
To view the winners and to learn more about the Creative Edge Challenge, go to https://creativeedgethinking.com.au/results.php
