The Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team will now compete in the March 21 New York State Odyssey of the Mind Tournament after being randomly selected through a lottery process.
The prestigious state tournament brings together winning teams from regional competitions held across the state to showcase their creative, long-term, and spontaneous problem-solving skills. The Middle School team finished in third-place in their division at the Feb. 28 Region 5 Tournament held at Orange-Ulster BOCES.
“We were informed that the students were selected through the state lottery process." said Coach Madison Wyman. "In Odyssey of the Mind, a team that placed second or third at the regional level can sometimes be randomly selected to advance to the state competition if additional spots open up. Our team was selected through that process, which is how Minisink Valley Middle School was invited to move up to the state level. After discussing it with the team, we agreed to attend.”
Team members are Ashton Gibbs, Christian Hines, Jemma Marsala, Quinn Murphy, Victoria Papp and Alicia Suen with Coach Wyman.
The team will present Problem 1/“Off the Rails.”
For this problem, the team becomes conductors and engineers as they continue to design, build and operate a train vehicle.
As the train travels the course it will have a new car attached at each stop.
Along the route, it will encounter challenges that make the train travel in different ways.
After all of its cargo is picked up, the items will be unloaded and assembled into a work of art.
The performance will also include the use of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, a humorous conductor character and a villain character that tries to prevent the train from getting to its destination.
“The team has spent time making a few refinements to strengthen their performance,” Coach Wyman said. “They updated parts of the script, adjusted some props, and worked on making the overall presentation more cohesive for the state-level competition. We are so excited to have been selected and represent the Middle School and school district."