2017 da Vinci Decathlon Challenge
Vasili Filippatos
Year 6 da Vinci Decathlon Captain
The crisp weather and the first break of light was to accompany a day in which 16 boys from Wyvern House, eight from each Year 5 and 6 respectively, competed with high stakes to win the da Vinci decathlon which was hosted by Knox Grammar School. The decathlon tested students’ abilities in 10 disciplines which Leonardo da Vinci associated with, including, English, Science, Ideation, Creative Producers, Art and Poetry, Engineering, Mathematics, Cartography, Code Breaking and General Knowledge.
Session 1 began with a prayer, a welcome, and an acknowledgement of country, followed by a quiz of 10 questions, some of these including “Where is the sea of tranquility located? The moon.” We were then challenged in our creative fields of English, Ideation, Creative Producers and the highly logical Sciences. Josh Serone, Nicholas Maratos, and Daniel Johnson were asked to create an effective way to conserve energy and power in Ideation. Bodie Young, Toby Eastway, and Sebastian Parhash in Science, delving into the power in appliances and colours, and also energy and Jasper Walsh and Vasili Filippatos were looking at philosophical power in characters in literature, spelling all words power, and the power of six word stories and visual literacy, concluding the session with writing slogans to conserve power. Ours was “Switch off power for another hour.”
The second session sought the team creating an artwork accompanied by a poem on the wild, wild ocean, designed by Vasili and Toby, with the pressure exerted on us, Mathematics completed by Sebastian, Jasper, and Vasili, Cartography completed by Josh and Nicholas, and Engineering by Jasper and Bodie. Times in this session were staggered allowing maximum collaboration and team effort, and all boys tried their best to help others, no matter how inexperienced someone was. I, along with my comrades, can agree that we all shared a laugh while answering challenging and difficult questions. Our session finisher was dancing to the hit by Pharrell Williams “Happy,” conducting a conga in the Great Hall at Knox.
Finally, we finished with General Knowledge and Code Breaking, dividing the team in logicians and trivians, or simply, those who know useless knowledge. These conundrums led our brains into areas of complexity and knowledge. After these final events, HSC performers from Knox presented three numbers followed by the results. Unfortunately, both Wyvern teams were unsuccessful. Once again, the girls outperformed the boys… Well done Ascham School!
I would like to thank the efforts and great lengths that Mr Baker and Miss Dillon went to help with the flow of the competition.
Roman Lewis
Year 5 da Vinci Decathlon Captain
On the 25th May 2017 the Year 5 da Vinci Decathlon team travelled to Knox Grammar Preparatory School to compete in the “academic Gala day for Years 5 and 6” (da Vinci Decathlon). The team left Wyvern at an early time of 6:45am. When our team arrived, we found our seats and were raring to go. The main theme for the state decathlon was Power. Everyone competes in at least one subject in a range of categories. The first section contained the subjects of Creative Producers, English, Ideation/Philosophy and Science. Everybody had to collaborate. To finish all the questions, you were required to manage your time extremely well. We began. Some of the questions we faced seemed beyond our level, but we persevered, trying our best until the time on all the enormous screens was 0:00:00.
After finishing our recess, our team was ready to tackle the next section. We found our seats and began again. Section two contained Creative Producers, Mathematics, Cartography and Engineering. For us as a team, this was the hardest section of the day, but we managed to complete everything to the best of our team’s ability. Our team focused to the max, concentrating and blocking out almost every sound up until the time ran out. As a team, we were honoured to represent Wyvern and endeavoured to put up a solid performance and were ready to finish our day, completing the remaining two tasks to finish off an incredible 2017 da Vinci Decathlon.
In the third and final section, we competed in Code Breaking and General Knowledge. Four boys doing code breaking and the same completing the General Knowledge quiz. This was a lot easier for us in comparison to section two. There were questions we could identify and answer. After we finished the final section, a cacophony of talking and excitement erupted in the hall, followed by a tense silence. The man who organised the decathlon began to announce the winners. Sadly, Wyvern did not place in the top three for any activities. Every team who participated in the da Vinci Decathlon did exceptionally well, congratulations to the many successful teams. Even though we did not get a podium finish it has inspired us all to attempt to push further next year. Bring on the NSW 2018 da Vinci Decathlon.
Team: William Verden, Angus Edmundson, Andrew Vasilaris, Finlay FitzSimons, Hugo Sharkey, Kian Chan, Brentson Lew and Roman Lewis
