Student teams from Averill Park, Brunswick, and Germantown School Districts won their problem and age level at the Odyssey of the Mind State Finals April 11 in Binghamton and will move on to the World Finals May 25-28 at Iowa State University.
The team from Germantown Elementary School won second place in No-Cycle Recycle Division 1, The team from Averill Park High School won second place in Stack Attack! Division 3, and the team from Tamarac Secondary School in Brunswick won first place in No-Cycle Recycle Division 2. They were among 20 local teams advancing to the state competition after the regional competition held February 27 at Coxsackie-Athens CSD.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students of all ages. It encourages students to use their imaginations and to work in teams – skills that will be useful throughout their lives.
Teams are judged on their unique solutions to the problems, as well as their teamwork, creativity, ability to think out of the box, and in excelling (i.e., going above and beyond) throughout the competition.
At least one team from Rensselaer, Columbia, or Greene County has advanced to the World Finals every year since 2007, including 12 in the past five years alone, with four advancing in 2013, three in 2014 and one in 2015.
