The Maine state champion Odyssey of the Mind team from the Jefferson Village School placed 30th out of 45 teams in their division at the World Finals at Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich.
“The team is very happy about the way they competed,” said JVS coach and school librarian Kathy Peabody. “They can’t wait for OM to start next year.”
The JVS 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 competed alongside 1100 teams from around the world in a student competition that encourages imaginative problem solving, Peabody said. The students faced two challenges, one they prepared for ahead of time, and one spontaneous problem that they had 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, their structure held 50 pounds – 75 pounds less than it did at the state competition.
The change in humidity affected the wood and caused the difference, Peabody said.
The winning team’s structure held 1085 pounds, Peabody said.
“They learned a lot and came back with some new ideas for next year,” Peabody said.
Along with the competition, the JVS team had the chance to meet students from around the world. “On the first night they were trading pins with people from China,” Peabody said.
Each team brings pins that represent their team to trade with the other students at the competition. The JVS pins were haunted house and bat themed, “because we’re batty about OM,” Peabody said.
JVS has good reason to be excited about Odyssey of the Mind: they’re really good at it.
In only five years of competing, JVS has already sent two teams to the World Finals. Two years ago, the 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.
“I really want thank everyone that supported the team and helped us get there,” Peabody said.
