Averill Park HS finished first in the Animal House problem, which challenged teams to build balsa wood structures that turned into animals. Their structure held 896.5 pounds.
Five local student teams advanced to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals May 23-26 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. This is the 12th straight year that a team from the Questar III region has advanced from the state competition held in Binghamton.
Congratulations to the following teams:
- Scott M. Ellis Elementary School (Greenville) – Triathlon Travels Division I
- Tamarac Secondary School (Brunswick) – Triathlon Travels Division III
- Germantown Upper School – Classics…Mockumentary! Seriously? Division II
- Catskill Middle School – Animal House Division II
- Averill Park High School – Animal House Division III
They were among the 22 local teams that advanced to the state competition from the regional competition coordinated by Questar III at Rensselaer CSD last month.
Teams from the Region 4 area of Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties have done well at the state level in recent years.
This marks the eighth year in the past decade that a team from Averill Park CSD has advanced to worlds. A team from Brunswick CSD has advanced for the past three years (and four out of the past five years).
In total, 15 local teams finished in the top 10 statewide for their problem and age level. This includes two third place teams (Rensselaer Park Elementary School and Tamarac Secondary School), one fourth place team (Hoosic Valley Jr. Sr. High School), four teams that finished eighth (Greenville Middle School, Ichabod Crane Middle School, Knickerbacker Middle School and Tamarac Elementary School), two teams that finished in ninth (Germantown Elementary School and Hoosic Valley Jr. Sr. High School) and one team that finished tenth (Troy High School).
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.
