Intermediate school wins first place at New York State Odyssey of the Mind competition and is going to World Competition!

Odyssey of the Mind teamThe Minisink Valley Intermediate School Odyssey of the Mind team is going to WORLD COMPETITION!

The team won first place in its division at the New York State Odyssey of the Mind competition on March 23 and will now compete against teams from all over the world at Michigan State University at the end of May!

This is also the first time a Minisink Valley Odyssey of the Mind team will be going to world competition in recent years!

The team of Faith Padavano, Sylvia Glebocki, Olivia Pollock, Samuel Blake, Samantha Kassel, Luciano Palacios and Fiona Talbot scored 339.12 out of a possible 350 points to capture first place for its Division I presentation of Problem 1: “OMER to the Rescue, Again.”

OM scoreboardFor 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.