Odyssey of the Mind is a club where students creatively solve problems. The problems are provided to teams from the state OM educational program. Teams compete at a local level first and then to a state level if they place in the local competition. If they advance from the state competition, they compete at a world competition. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program. Students on the OM team solve problems by building mechanical devices to presentations that interpret literary classics. This year, the two problems that our Middle School teams solved were Extreme Mousemobiles and Le Tour Guide.
Problem 3: Le Tour Guide required teams to create and present an original performance where a classical character acts as a Tour Guide. The tour made three stops including one that was a team-created location. During the tour an inanimate object showed signs of life, the Tour Guide gave the wrong explanation about something, and then gave a creative explanation about why it was important to guard and secure a worthless item. Congratulations to team 3 for advancing to the state level of competition. Problem 1: Extreme Mousemobiles asked students to design, build and run vehicles that used mousetraps as the only source of energy. The mobiles then travelled a course that had segments of different challenges. Team 1 was able to choose from tasks, such as, driving through a tunnel, raising a flag, hitting a target, changing direction, making a delivery, and then the team performed two team-created challenges. Team 1 worked tirelessly, performed with pride, but did not, unfortunately, advance to states. Congratulations to Mr. Brown, the OM advisor, and to all of the Omers of SMS!