Fort Hunt Students Gear Up for Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

Five teams of students from the Fort Hunt area will use the creative side of their brains to compete at the international level in Odyssey of the Mind next month.

Two teams from Stratford Landing Elementary School, two teams from Carl Sandburg Middle School and one team from West Potomac High School placed high enough at the state competition to move on to the World Finals.  This year, the finals will be held at the University of Maryland.

The premise of is “creativity can be taught.”  Students are given a long-term project that requires out-of-the box thinking and problem solving skills. While each team has a parent volunteer coach, students are not permitted to seek outside help.

“It’s a mix of performing arts, building skills, creativity, skit writing, humor and presentation,” said parent Jenny Kennedy whose daughter Grace is on one of the Carl Sandburg teams.

In the past, long-term problems have included “Mousemobiles,” where students were challenged to build mobile machines powered only by mousetraps.  Another group of students were challenged to build a “Nature Trailer;” something you could ride on through an obstacle course that also educated observers about the environment.

In addition to the long-term problem, Odyssey of the Mind competitors are also challenged with a spontaneous portion of the competition.

“[In that part of the competition] kids could be asked ‘why is the Leaning Tower leaning?’ Creative responses are worth more points.  It’s all about thinking outside of the box,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said a lot of practice and preparation goes into an Odyssey of the Mind competition.  The students work on their projects for months and solutions usually involve everything from skits and songs to elaborate costumes.

 “You get points for something they call style.  Being polished, working together as a team, being finished and elaborate,” said Kennedy.

Students from all over the country will compete at the World Finals, as well as students from Singapore, Poland and beyond.

School PTA organizations are helping the Fort Hunt area teams raise money for the finals which take place May 27th-29th. Students will also be doing car washes and small fund raisers to help put team money together.