After months of practice and advancement, Spring Branch ISD Odyssey of the Mind teams placed in the top bracket of the largest World Finals competition ever held, on June 3rd at the University of Maryland.
Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem solving competition, similar to Academic Decathalon, but focusing on creativity rather than academics, and with competition brackets ranging from kindergarten to college.
The contest consists of a long-term problem, which each team receives and prepares for months in advance, and a series of spontaneous problems, which tests the teams’ ability to answer quick, off-the-top-of-your-head questions.
Each team is given a score out of 350 points: 200 from the Long-term category, 100 from Spontaneous. The remaining 50 points are taken from Style, which is determined by how well each team went about solving the problem at hand.
Placing 3rd in Division II, Spring Forest Middle School swept away the other teams that worked on this year’s long-term performance problem, The Eccentrics!, which required students to create a humorous performance about three eccentric characters.
The performance problem is always heavily focused on acting and on the script, and the Spring Forest Middle team went above and beyond, designing costumes and sets, composing music, and singing in addition to writing an original, eight minute play.
Students Will Lynde, Sean McDermott, Austin Stephens, Isai Martinez, Matthew Greene, and Evan White were excited as they posed with Omer, the Odyssey of the Mind mascot, showing off their bronze medals. (See photograph.)
Spring Oaks Middle School was the only SBISD team to compete in the World Finals for two consecutive years. They placed 13th overall. The team competed along with Westchester Academy (who placed 20th overall) in a problem focused on building a structure that would hold as much weight as possible. The Spring Oaks Middle team also was a buddy team to a Polish group at the World Finals, helping them with transportation among other things.
“Since we were at World [Finals] last year I felt they could handle the responsibility. They did not let me down. They were fantastic ambassadors!” Spring Oaks Middle coach Iris Story exclaimed.
Other district teams included Meadow Wood Elementary, which came in 15th overall, two other teams from Westchester Academy, which placed 21st and 37th overall.