On February 27th, two Odyssey of the Mind teams from Vintage traveled to San Marino High School in the San Gabriel Valley to compete for the first time at the LA Basin Regional Tournament. There they presented their Antarctica Fins, Fur, Feather and Friends skit meeting five pages of specifications. A second group presented a Pirates skit involving building structures with balsa wood and had to satisfy eight pages of specifications.
Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem solving competition for students of all ages and abilities. Teams of between 5 to 7 students choose one of 5 problems, create a solution to it, then present their solution in a competition against other teams in the same problem and age division.
There are many guidelines and requirements that must be followed. Teams spend weeks, or months, creating solutions to their long-term problems. Students must come up with all of the ideas for their solution and do all of the work themselves. The teams are given a budget that they must not exceed, and a time limit of 8 minutes to present their solution. In addition to the long-term problem, teams are given a spontaneous problem from the judges that the team must solve. They have just a couple of minutes to think about it, then solve it together. Judges place a lot of emphasis on innovative and creative ideas, expressive acting, original, student created scripts, songs, and dances, unique use of common materials, teamwork, and sportsmanship. This is a valuable experience for the students in that they are totally responsible for their own learning and solutions, all while they learn to really listen to each other, cooperate, and work towards a common goal.
Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem solving competition for students of all ages and abilities. Teams of between 5 to 7 students choose one of 5 problems, create a solution to it, then present their solution in a competition against other teams in the same problem and age division.
There are many guidelines and requirements that must be followed. Teams spend weeks, or months, creating solutions to their long-term problems. Students must come up with all of the ideas for their solution and do all of the work themselves. The teams are given a budget that they must not exceed, and a time limit of 8 minutes to present their solution. In addition to the long-term problem, teams are given a spontaneous problem from the judges that the team must solve. They have just a couple of minutes to think about it, then solve it together. Judges place a lot of emphasis on innovative and creative ideas, expressive acting, original, student created scripts, songs, and dances, unique use of common materials, teamwork, and sportsmanship. This is a valuable experience for the students in that they are totally responsible for their own learning and solutions, all while they learn to really listen to each other, cooperate, and work towards a common goal.
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