Four local student teams advanced to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals May 22-25 at Michigan State University. This is the 13th straight year that a team from the Questar III BOCES region has advanced from the state competition held in Binghamton.
Congratulations to the following teams:
- Tamarac Secondary School (Brunswick) – OMER to the Rescue Again, Division III
- Germantown Elementary School – Structure Toss, Division I
- Algonquin Middle School – Structure Toss, Division II
- School 18 (Troy) – Opposites Distract, Division I
The four teams were among the 27 teams that advanced to the state competition from the regional competition coordinated by Questar III at Coxsackie-Athens CSD earlier this month. In total, 18 local teams finished in the top 10 statewide in their problem and age level.
The team from Germantown Elementary School, which competed in the Structure Toss problem, was one of only three teams to earn the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award. This award is given to a team or individual for demonstrating exceptional creativity, either through some aspect of their problem solution, or an extraordinary idea beyond the problem solution.
Teams from the Region 4 area of Rensselaer, Columbia and Greene counties have done well at the state level in recent years. A team from Averill Park CSD has advanced to the world finals 10 out of the past 12 years, a team from Brunswick CSD has advanced to worlds four years in a row (and six out of the past seven years) and a team from Germantown CSD has advanced two years in a row (and four out of the past five years).
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.
See photos from the Region 4 Tournament held March 9 at Coxsackie-Athens CSD:
