Twenty-one student teams from Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene counties advanced to the state Odyssey of the Mind tournament on March 26, 2022 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, NY. This year’s regional tournament had 42 teams from 10 districts, and one private school competing.
Odyssey of the Mind encourages students to work in teams to solve problems by using their imaginations, and natural creativity. They are asked to solve open ended problems in five categories; vehicle, technical, classics, structure, and performance. Competitions are held at local, state, and world levels,
Congratulations to all of the teams who competed at regionals!
Problem 1 Vehicle: Escape vroOM
Odyssey teams take their problem-solving skills inside a box as they create a performance that includes one or more team-created vehicles that will help a group of characters escape an unusual room. The vehicle will travel to areas within the room and complete tasks. Each time it completes a task it will release a “clue” that the group will use in the next area to release the next clue, and so on. When the vehicle performs the final task, it will reveal a final clue that allows the group to escape the room and they discover the mystery behind the room!
- Ichabod Crane Middle School – Division I
- Donald P. Sutherland Elementary School (East Greenbush) – Division I
- Knickerbacker Middle School (Lansingburgh) – Division I
- Greenville High School – Division III
Problem 2 Technical: Odyssey reOMvention
While no one knows what the future holds, it’s likely OMers will have an important role in it! To prove just that, teams will present a performance that identifies an original threat to the environment that self-replicates until a team-created technical reOMvention removes the threat. The team’s setting will reflect the threat and then return to its original state. The performance will also include original music, two animal characters, and must use ARM & HAMMER™ Baking Soda.
- Rensselaer Park Elementary School – Division I
- School #14 (Troy) – Division I
- Howard L. Goff Middle School (East Greenbush) – Division II
- Knickerbacker Middle School (Lansingburgh) – Division II
Problem 3 Classics: The Musical Production
Historical figures get an encore as OMers re-tell their stories in musical form. In this problem, teams will create a biographical musical about a selected historic figure. There will be three songs: an opening number, an emotional number whose music conveys an emotion, and one determined by the team. The performance will also include a lighting special effect, movement of scenery, and a membership sign that will appear as a marquee for the team’s musical.
- Ichabod Crane Primary School – Division I
- Hoosic Valley Elementary School – Division I
- Troy High School – Division II
Problem 4 Structure: Matryoshka Structure
It’s always the more the merrier with nesting dolls, also known as Matryoshka! In this problem, teams will design and build a Matryoshka Structure made of only balsa wood and glue that holds as much weight as possible. The 8+” structure will hold additional structures nested one inside the other. The more structures that are nested, the higher the score! Before weight placement can begin, the nested
structures will be removed one-by-one to reveal a tiny character nested inside the smallest structure. The performance will have a theme about storage that includes placing weights, the structures, and the
tiny character.
- Red Mill Elementary School (East Greenbush) – Division I
- Germantown Central School – Division II
- Algonquin Middle School – Division II
- Averill Park High School – Division III
Problem 5 Performance: Life is a Circus!
Sometimes life seems like a circus! Teams will create a performance about a young person enjoying a regular life in our world who wakes up one day to discover they somehow were transported into a circus
world. In the circus world there will be original animals performing unexpected tricks, a clown, circus acts, and a ringmaster that announces the activities. The young person returns to the regular world thinking it was all a dream until they see a mysterious figure that turns out to be from the circus.
- School #18 Tory- Division I
- School #16 Troy- Division I
- Rensselaer Park Elementary School- Division 1
- Troy Middle School – Division II
- Algonquin Middle School – Division II
- Germantown Central School – Division III
