Broadalbin-Perth Odyssey of the Mind is preparing for Regionals | Leader Herald
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Broadalbin-Perth Odyssey of the Mind is preparing for Regionals | Leader Herald

Odyssey of the mind team must implement a spontaneous problem for some of their points as well as a long-term problem, for which teams spend months preparing solutions for, spontaneous problems are extemporana and given to students on the competition day. The goal of the competition is to improve students’ teamwork, public speaking, time management and budget ability and to promote trust.

Odyssey of the Mind Teams is limited to how much they can spend on deliveries and leaving competitors to challenge themselves by only taking the most innovative ideas that speak for themselves. It is a creative problem -solving program with annual competitions at regional, state, national and international level.

“Although teams cannot practice the specific spontaneous problems they will have at a competition, they can practice universal strategies and improve their ability to work as a team by trying different problems,” said Amy Wurz, coordinator for the district district Odyssey of the Mind program. “Spontaneous day is an opportunity for our team to practice in a competition -like environment, learn new strategies and hear feedback that they can apply for problems they encounter in the future.”

Last year, a group with five high school’s Broadalbin-Perth won a championship at Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Iowa State University. After four years to get to the global competition, which consisted of the then senior Lauryn Donahue, Logan Aery, Jacob Hughes and Blaine Herrick and then Junior Ryan Michalski could secure the top point.

This year’s team gathered last weekend to train for the upcoming tournament, which will take place at Junior/Senior High School on Saturday, March 8. Teams were challenged to come up with answers or solutions to eight problems in place during the program’s annual annual spontaneous day.

The team practiced with volunteer coaches and judges, both of whom have assessed and trained in the competition. Problems challenged teams to make and decorate branches for a false tree, construct a route for a ball to travel out and back from the starting point and turn to creating a team drawing that begins with a circle.

The law will continue to practice spontaneous problems and prepare its solution to one of six long-term problems in advance for the 21 tournament region. The highest scores in each problem and division will move on to the New York State finals on Saturday, April 5. At the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.