Odyssey of the Mind teams take creative approach to problem solving

By: Lee Buchanan | Preston Spencer
Published: February 19, 2012

American Renaissance School students are thinking outside the box -- so much so that teacher Laura Smith said she worries a few may not even be in the same room with the box any longer.
A total of four ARS teams, made up of 25 students from the elementary and middle school levels, have been working every Saturday at the school preparing for the March 3 regional Odyssey of the Mind competition. The competition, which students from across the globe participate in, challenges students to solve one of five problems. Teachers and parent volunteers who oversee the children are strictly not allowed to offer ideas of their own or advice.
“Judges are looking for creativity in how they solve specific questions,” said Smith, director of Odyssey of the Mind at ARS. “They learn how to work together to solve problems in a different way. We’re used to telling the kids what to do,
but we have to concentrate to ask, ‘How would you solve this problem?’”
The students will be competing regionally in Boone March 3. Top finishers at the regional level move to a state competition, and the best ones there compete against other nations. ARS had two teams make it to the state level last
year. Of the four ARS teams, two are solving a problem called “Weird Science.” The synopsis tells the students they are scientists on an expedition to uncover the cause of mysterious events. The team must create a device that can travel on its own to pick up samples from the ground and return them to the team base.
The elementary team designed a crossbow-inspired device that shoots a mini-plunger out of the end of a PVC pipe. A bungee cord, once released, pushes a smaller PVC pipe up the shaft of another producing the propulsion impacting the
plunger.
“We had to get on the Internet and learn how crossbows work,” said ARS fifth grader Dylan Sutton. “It’s really fun because we can do things that we’re not allowed to do normally. At school, you don’t get to build big machines.”
One team is working on a Hamlet-inspired problem titled “To Be or Not to Be” that asks kids to put a musical theatre spin on William Shakespeare’s famous line. The children have chosen “To Wee or Not to Wee,” and have designed a play around a child’s decision about when to use the bathroom.
Another team is working on “Odyssey Angels,” which challenges the group to present a performance where students travel to a team-created land and fix negative situations. The students are given eight minutes at the competition to present their solutions to the problems offered. A second part of the competition, a spontaneous question the judges give the teams to solve on the spot, follows.
The ARS students have spent six hours each Saturday since the beginning of January practicing and perfecting their presentations.
ARS sixth grader Phebe Pickard is a part of a team with four other girls. She said
learning how to work together has been the most valuable part of the
competition. “Four heads are better than one,” said Pickard. “When we don’t agree on something, we compromise ideas.”

Odyssey of the Mind teams take creative approach to problem solving

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