Avon Odyssey of the Mind Team Places Third at States

The Avon Odyssey of the Mind team that went to the world finals last year placed third at the state championship at Bristol Eastern Saturday, marking the highest creativity score of any team in this educational competition.

"The huge benefit is to see all other teams from across state to present their solutions," Elizabeth Zagata, coordinator for the Roaring Brook teams and one of the coaches, said of the state finals.

All of Avon's teams placed in the top 10, she said.

The international program exposes kids to many fields from science and engineering to drama and the arts, Zagata said.

“It’s meant as supplemental enrichment to what schools are already doing," Zagata said.

Program participation surged from three teams last year to 10 in 2012 from Roaring Brook, Pine Grove and Thompson Brook schools. There were about 60 kids total. The third place team comprised five students from Roaring Brook and one from Thompson Brook.

Avon Parent Teacher Organizations fund the program. This year there were two sponsors – and.

Students from three divisions compete annually – Primary (kindergarten to third grade students), Division 1 (third to fifth grade) and Division 2 (sixth to eighth grade). From fall until the competition, teams work together on their solutions to Odyssey tasks; they also complete spontaneous problems at the state finals.

“In a lot of converstions about curriculum for schools and looking for big picture kind of skills for Avon kids to develop, things come up time and time again, [including] creative thinking, thinking out of the box, problem solving, collaboration and hands-on engineering and science," Zagata said. "All of those skills, real world problem solving…Odyssey of Mind checks all those boxes."

This year, some of the problems involved creating a vehicle that displays changes in emotion and uses two types of propulsion, designing a device to open containers from five to eight feet away, performing a story about scientists on a mystery expedition and doing a skit that combined Hamlet, musical theater and a trap door, according to Zagata.

"It really covers the gamet," Zagata said. “Everything is done entirely by kids. There can no be outside assistance."

While only the top two teams from each age bracket make it to the world championship, the third place team from Avon still has a shot at going if either team ahead of it opts not to compete.

Zagata said that the goal is to expand the program even further to Avon Middle School next year.

“For one, they love it. The kids love it. They have a blast. It's a fun program to be a part of," Zagata said. "I have seen really significant growth as far as kids, their creativity and problem solving, not just to components of development on an individual basis, but also in a collaborative sense."

Results

• Division 1A Ooh-Motional Vehicle - the RBS team finished 10th
• Division 1B Ooh-Motional Vehicle - the TBS team finished 5th
• Division 1 Weird Science - the RBS team finished 3rd
• Division 2 Weird Science - the TBS team finished 4th
• Division 1 To Be or Not to Be - the RBS team finished 6th
• Division 1 You Make the Call - the PGS team finished 4th