Education should prepare students for life. This doesn’t happen with traditional methods. Students do not want to study the old way. They like challenges.
We wanted to encourage children to think differently, putting them in a position to play, compete, research data, communicate, collaborate, connect known facts, all in the attempt to solve problems.
That way students want and like to learn.
Teachers challenge students to become detectives, and to compete. They do not teach, they become mentors.
Students do the research. This way, they get practical knowledge and applicable skills through teamwork.
The research is done using IT – the teacher provides guidance and fosters critical thinking through discussion. This way, children improve digital and financial literacy, practice data and information analysis, and develop creative, critical and problem-based thinking skills.
Students have no fear of giving the wrong answer. Unlike standard tasks and tests which have a single correct solution, problem-solving includes multiple answers.
Students love challenges, riddles and mysteries. They are learning while having fun.
It is suitable for all types of students. Problem-solving develops students’ personality and it’s equally favourable for the visual, logical, verbal and kinetic student-types. It also allows the participation of students with special needs.
In 2019 the project was piloted in Serbia. 35 teams (4 members each) took part and their reactions were encouraging. 2020 brought 333 teams of participants 11 to 14 years old from all over Serbia. Some teams from the region (Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) also took part in the competition.
Due to the great interest, new categories of competitors were included in 2021: 15 – 19-year-old students.
In 2021, a partnership was established between Slovenian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Portuguese schools that want to conduct the competition in their countries within the Erasmus+ program.
Our goal is to further internationalize this competition.
So far, Brainfinity was held in the Serbian language. Encourage us to make it international and create tasks in English – let us know you are interested.
You need to complete 5 steps to participate: think of an original team name, find a teacher-mentor, create a team logo, make a team photo and create a team email address. Then let your Brainfinity adventure begin!
