Meet the eighth wonder of the world: The Minisink Valley Intermediate School Odyssey of the Mind Team!
The team of Faith Padavano, Sylvia Glebocki, Olivia Pollock, Samuel Blake, Samantha Kassel, Luciano Palacios and Fiona Talbot won eighth-place in its division at the Odyssey of the Mind World competition, held this past weekend at Michigan State University in East Lansing, for its skit for Problem I, “OMER to the Rescue Again.”
‘It has been an absolute pleasure to work with these students this year, and I feel honored to have been able to work alongside Ms. Caporlingua as we watched these students take this amazing journey,” said coach Danielle Cornacchio. “It is truly incredible to see what students can create/are capable of when everything is within their control. Also, not only was their product amazing, but the teamwork they developed along the way was moving. The experiences they all shared together are ones they, and we, will treasure forever.”
Fifty-five teams…..from just about everywhere!
In their category, 55 teams from around the world competed again the intermediate school team. This included multiple teams from China and Poland, and teams from Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico and South Korea.
Domestic teams competing against Minisink Valley included teams from Florida, Maine, Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Delaware, Arizona, Colorado and New York.
The team representing a school from Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province, took first place with 343.28 out of a possible 350 points. Minisink Valley was close behind with a total of 305.81 points!
“They worked so hard to get here and it was a wonderful payoff to see them be a part of this one of a kind experience,” added coach Stefani Caporlingua. “We could not be more proud of this amazing group.”
What did they do?
In this problem, OMER, OM’s “raccoon mascot,” and his sidekick traveled to different places with suitcases holding all parts of an OMER-mobile vehicle. Both assembled and rode on the vehicle, which needed to function in different ways, “to save the day.”
Between attempts, the vehicle was disassembled, put back into the suitcases, and taken to a different area where it was reassembled and driven again. Finally, the OMER-mobile was thrown a hero’s parade as a show of appreciation.
An international education program providing creative problem-solving opportunities
OM is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics.
Team members work together at length to solve a predefined long-term problem and present their solution to the problem at a competition. They must also participate in the spontaneous portion of the competition by generating solutions to a problem they have not seen before.
While the long-term problem solution often takes many months to complete and involves various elements of theatrical performance, construction and design, the spontaneous portion occurs the day of the competition.
They bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.