Students think outside the box at Opti-MINDS

Creativity, co-operation and innovation were on display as students competed in the Opti-MINDS Toowoomba Regional Final held at The University of Queensland Gatton Campus. 

More than 500 students from 26 schools in the Toowoomba region participated in three challenges: language literature, science engineering and social sciences.

The Division 3 Science Engineering winners were Year 10 students from Laidley Sate High School David Ketterer, Rhianna Carroll Kelly, Josh McPherson Merritt, Megan Einam and Tegan Osborne.   

Mr McPherson Merritt said he thoroughly enjoyed taking part in Opti-MINDS and his team built an elevator.

“Our group likes building things and that’s why we chose to go in the science engineering challenge,” Mr McPherson Merritt said.  

“We all really enjoyed the challenge this year and trying to build the elevator was really interesting.

“Our structure ended up looking like a sling shot.

“We were really happy with the end product but it took a lot of brainstorming and compromising on ideas to come up with our finished product.” 

It is the fifth year the Opti-MINDS Toowoomba Regional Final has been held at UQ Gatton. 

Throughout the day tours are run of the Veterinary Medical Centre on campus and a small market is held for participants and their families to explore.

The winning teams will go on to represent their school at the state finals at UQ’s St Lucia campus on the 12 and 13 October.  

The Opti-MINDS Toowoomba Regional Final is sponsored by UQ Gatton, BHP Billiton, Handybin Waste Services and James Cook University.

Media: Erin Pearl, UQ Gatton, 5460 1229 or e.pearl@uq.edu.au