On March 7, the Rensselaer City School District will host the 2015 Region 4 Odyssey of the Mind Tournament. This year is set to be a record year for participation, with 108 teams from 36 school districts in Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene counties registered to take part. Students from grades K-12 are put into divisions based on grade level, and are given a problem to solve on their own, without assistance from parents or teachers.
Odyssey of the Mind is coordinated by Questar III BOCES, and encourages students to use their imaginations and to work in teams, learning skills that will be useful throughout their lives.
With such a large number of students and teams participating, there is also a great need for volunteers and judges for the event.
If you’d like to volunteer to judge the competition, you must attend a training session. School districts participating are asked to provide one judge for each of its teams. Judge training sessions will be held at Shenendehowa High School West on Saturday, January 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and at Rensselaer High School on Wednesday, February 11 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. You can register to judge and indicate the training session you will attend here.
If you’d like to volunteer for event setup the day before or for various activities the day of the event including registration, parking, merchandise sales, serving as door guards at problem sites, or assisting with hallway/stairwell flow throughout the day, you can sign up here.
For more information, please contact Arlene Sampson Region 4 Program Director, asampson@questar.org; 518-479-6843 (office); 518-573-9104 (cell).
Winning teams will move on to the statewide competition April 12 at Binghamton University.
