Posted by Russell McMurchie
on May 20, 2011
The "Odyssey of the Mind" troupe gave a sparkling performance to the Rotary Club of Port Coquitlam at their May 19th meeting. The children are from Grade 2 to grade 5 and have put this program together themselves. The coach is not allowed to touch the costumes or the production. The kids did it themselves including a "mousemobile" powered by three Mouse traps that would be a challenge to any of us! Incredible!
For 27 years, "Odyssey of the Mind" is a school-based international program that promotes creative problem solving for students of all ages through encouraging imaginative paths. Students work together in teams of 5-7 on a "long term problem" (which they have to pick out of different categories at the very beginning of their "Odyssey"). Our team consists of six children from different Port Coquitlam Elementary Schools: Lynn Kaufmann, Grade 3 at Cedar Drive, Kailyn Quinn, Grade 3 at Cedar Drive, Cyan Huang, Grade 5 at Central, Sidney Amann, Grade 2 at Irvine, Max Amann, Grade 4 at Irvine and Ally Tubl, also Grade 4 at Irvine Elementary. The children have worked together as a team since November. They created a vehicle powered and operated via mouse traps, designed their own costumes and spent a lot of time practicing. In addition to this "long term problem" the participating teams are expected to succeed in a "spontaneous challenge".
The children won first place in the BC Provincial tournament on April 16, 2011 for their "extreme mousemobile" that performed various challenges while simultaneously performing a play. They also qualified to compete in the World Finals at the University of Maryland, USA from May 27-30. If you are interested in finding out more about "Odyssey of the Mind" in BC and the World's competition please check out http://www.odysseybc.ca/whatIsOdyssey.html and http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/wf2011/
The kids are super excited about representing British Columbia (and Port Coquitlam) at the Finals "Odyssey of the Mind" is a non-profit charitable organization,
