S.S. Seward Odyssey of the Mind students to compete in state finals April 5

S.S. Seward’s Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team placed third at the recent Region 5 tournament and also won the lottery to proceed to the New York State finals to be held April 5 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.

The students work together to solve problems in creative ways by using out of the box thinking to get results, an important lifelong skill.

“It takes a very special type of creativity and critical thinking to create their own narrative and then solve problems that they themselves create,” club adviser Evan Lally said. “Students learn to pay attention to specific details and evaluate how those details may accumulate to affect the overall idea.”

Lally is ecstatic for this honor as Seward has not had an OM team for some time, but students went into the competition like pros despite only having second-hand knowledge of what it was like. He credited their support of one another and building everything from scratch for their successful performance titled “Problem Five AstronOMical Odyssey.”

“I am extremely proud that our students were able to put in the effort to create and present a creative, fun and funny story,” Lally said. “Everything they built and every idea they had was entirely unique ... this resulted in a very creative performance.”

Eighth grader Pippa Carey chose to join OM because she wanted to improve her teamwork, problem solving and creative thinking skills and hopes to get to the top 50 percent of all the teams at states.

She shared this piece of advice for future competitors: “I would tell them to listen to their teammates and make sure to listen to others. I would also recommend they read the rules needed for their problem many times so they know what they can and cannot do.”

It was not just older students that got in on the fun.

While the Division 1 team, consisting of third to fifth graders, did not place during the competition, the judges gave them a standing ovation for their performance centered on a chef character present at a dinner party. The challenge was it had to be based on a piece of classic literature and they took inspiration from the Roald Dahl classic “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to create the appropriate set and table settings.

“The kids were missing a team member that day, but they worked together to solve this,” club adviser Amber Saunders said. “Their performance was great.”

”It’s just a fun experience,” said fifth-grader Everett Misir, a Division 1 team member. “I was excited at the competition because I knew we were ready.”

The primary team also had a chance to shine, too. While the younger students on this team were not judged on their problem solving skills, they still had the opportunity to expire their creativity and learn about both team work and the Odyssey of the Mind rules.