Two weeks ago, Lowell students were deep in discussion with the Russians. No, this had nothing to do with espionage or hacking. Instead, the students were buddied up with a team from Russia for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. It was just one aspect of the incredible experience students had during the four day event held at Michigan State University.
All About Odyssey of the Mind
Founded in 1978, Odyssey of the Mind is a global program that encourages students to be creative problem solvers. Each year, participating teams can select a “problem” that must be solved. These range from creating balsa wood structures that can hold hundreds of pounds to determining what a superhero would have to do if creativity were being drained from the world.
To solve the problem, students typically combine technical elements – such as building a machine – with a creative performance. Teams are scored on criteria such as originality and risk-taking. There is also a spontaneous problem given on the day of the competition. Teams have eight minutes to come up with a solution on the spot with the materials provided.
For the 2016-2017 school year, about 35 Lowell students competed on five teams spread across the school district. Of those, the Lowell High School and Murray Lake Elementary School teams advanced from the regional competition to the state competition and from there to the world finals. The Lowell Middle School team also made it past the regional event to the state competition.
At the world finals, held May 24-27, Lowell students competed alongside 833 teams from across the nation as well as 13 other countries. The event not only let them compete against the world’s best, but also experience an array of other activities, from meeting representatives of NASA to rubbing shoulders with their Russian counterparts.
Getting Ready for the World Finals
The week before world finals, Lowell’s First Look stopped by the teams’ practice session to learn a little more about what the competition was all about. Held in the workshop of a coach’s home, the teams buzzed with activity. One teen was using a lathe to carve a goblet. Another was painting a prop. In the adjoining basement, a 4th grader cut cloth for a costume.
Hudson Newell, a member of the Murray Lake Elementary School team, held up a duct tape belt he had made. It was intended to hold tea cups for part of the team’s solution to the Ready, Set, Balsa, Build problem. It’s a new and improved version of the one he created for the state competition. “It was still duct tape, but it wasn’t as strong,” Newell said of the old version.
Improving old designs is a big part of preparation for the world finals. While teams can’t change their problem, they can adjust their solution as they move from the regional to state to world competitions.
Across the room from Newell, Annabelle Johnson was painting a prop for the high school team’s solution to Odd-a-Bot. “I’ve always been interested in creating things,” the 10th grader said. For her team’s solution, they had to write a humorous skit in which a robot learns how to do tasks by watching others.
John Lothian, an 8th grade member of the high school team, explained the robot needed to perform two tasks assigned by Odyssey of the Mind. Then, it also had to complete two additional tasks selected by the team. Then, as if that weren’t enough, the robot needed to later use those actions in a new way.
Meanwhile, Lily Richards was hard at work creating a costume that would be used as part of the skit created by Murray Lake students. Richards, a 4th grader, is a returning member of the team and was originally encouraged by her dad to join. “My dad thought I would be good at it,” she explained. Richards was part of the team that advanced to the world finals last year. “It’s really hard to win, but it’s really fun to be there,” she said of the experience.
Imaginative Kids, Amazing Adults
Odyssey of the Mind is notable in that all team solutions must be entirely student-created. Coaches are not allowed to make suggestions or otherwise influence how teams approach a problem. Instead, the adults merely supervise the work and provide access to materials.
The Lowell program is also notable because it is an all-volunteer effort by parents. The teams are not run by the school. In fact, Lowell Area Schools might not even compete in the program if not for the dedication of one woman in particular.
Lori Lathian has been heading up the local Odyssey of the Mind program for 11 years. When her oldest daughter was in kindergarten, she learned about the competition. “We went to the principal at the time, Brent Nosky, and said, what do you think?” she remembers. With Nosky’s blessing, she registered a primary level team for her daughter and in the years since, the program has grown to include five teams at all levels of competition.
“I like that it gives kids an opportunity to be creative and think about things in a different way,” Lathian says. While students can participate in music, art and theatre at school, Odyssey of the Mind combines those elements with math, science and problem-solving skills. “This is just different,” she says of the program. It’s an experience students would not have without her dedication and that of other parent volunteers.
More Than a Competition
The Lowell teams didn’t head to Michigan State University expecting to win. The competition was fierce with teams traveling from as far away as China and Japan. However, the final score is almost incidental to the entire experience, Lathian says.
Students stay in the dorms, buddy up with teams from other countries and trade pins with participants from across the globe. The world finals start with an Olympic-style opening ceremony, complete with laser lights and pyrotechnics. On subsequent nights, there is a coaches’ competition, graduation ceremony for seniors and a float and banner parade. The Creativity Festival during the day includes carnival-style events, and representatives from NASA are often on hand.
“It’s so much more than the competition itself,” Lathian says. Students leave the event with memories to last a lifetime and often take with them an expanded view of the world. Lathian notes that last year’s world finals teams were buddied with students from Mexico. “A lot of these kids have stayed in touch on social media,” she says. “They formed these friendships.”
She expects the same may happen with the Russian students her teams met this year. Several families are also hosting families from Poland now that the competition is done.
Speaking of the competition, while the Lowell teams didn’t win, they didn’t do too badly either. Both Lowell High School and Murray Lake Elementary School placed 22nd for their respective problem and division.
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