The Jefferson Village School Odyssey of the Mind team, who won the state championship earlier this year, left May 26 for the World Finals at the Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich.
The JVS OM team is Lucas Grotten, third grade, Emma Solorzano, fourth grade, and Courtney Peabody, John Henry, Roberta Anderson, and Emily Huber, all in fifth grade.
They will compete against 1100 teams from around the world in a student competition that encourages imaginative problem solving, said JVS coach and school librarian Kathy Peabody. The students face two challenges, one they prepare for ahead of time, and one spontaneous problem that they have to solve in two minutes with no preparation.
For their long-term problem, the JVS team built a structure out of balsa wood. At the competition, weight will be placed on the structure and whichever structure holds the most weight wins.
At the state level, the structures were no more than eight-inches tall and weighed no more than 18 grams. The JVS tower held 125 pounds. The structures for the world finals are more substantial and involve two towers, and winners often hold as much as 1200 pounds, Peabody said.
“It’s scary when you have to go in front of the judges,” Emily Huber said. The team is excited for the trip and confident in their abilities.
In only five years of competing, JVS has already built a strong history in the OM competitions. Two years ago, a JVS team went to the World Finals, and last year’s team placed third in the state competition. The top two teams go to the World Finals.
The team will maintain a blog during their trip, which will be available on JeffersonVillage.org.
