SUBATOMIC particles, dark matter and the tragedy of commons – not the typical investigation areas for students from Years 1 to 10.
However, for three teams from St Dympna's School, Aspley, it was a challenge they were eager to take on at the state finals of the Brainways Quest Competition held at the University of Queensland.
The competition, run in partnership with a number of universities, including The University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, Australian Catholic University, Wollongong University and Monash University, gave gifted students an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of their own ability in a competitive environment.
Offered over two days, the Preliminary Quest prepared teams for the challenge, rotating through the three learning areas, Mathematics, Science and Humanities as they were introduced to their focus topics.
On the second day, in a similar rotation system, the challenge itself was provided.
St Dympna's three teams joined students from across the country and internationally to challenge boundaries, stretch their mind and to gain a greater understanding of their own capacity by stimulating their creativity, problem solving and love of learning.
The determined students had their passions ignited and skills developed over two days in the disciplines of Mathematics, Science and Humanities inspired by the overarching theme: “At The Limits".
After being judged on the creativity, problem solving, team work and leadership they displayed during the challenge, two of St Dympna's teams successfully progressed to the national finals to be held in December.
The Year 6 students who took part said it was fun to learn about challenging concepts not usually covered at school and to be able to respond in a creative way.
The sentiments expressed by the older students was also affirmed by members of the winning junior team who said they really enjoyed the Humanities section where they searched for a missing valuable object within a world created by the collision of two asteroids.