Students from Nordstrom Elementary School showed off their problem-solving skills Feb. 27 as five of six teams placed in the top three at the Odyssey of the Mind’s Silicon Valley Regional Tournament.
Two student teams took first place, two others claimed second and another placed third in their respective divisions. The first and second place squads now advance to the April 2 state championship held at UC Riverside, according to Nordstrom sixth grade teacher Roya Gillani.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics.
Participants then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state and world level. There are two parts to the competition, and the teams have to solve a long-term problem and a spontaneous one. Team members work together at length to solve a predefined problem (long-term), and present their solution at a competition. At Nordstrom, students have been working on their problems, meeting twice a week, since September.
For the spontaneous portion of the competition, students must come up with their own creative interpretations, building props and acting out on stage. The teams do not know ahead of time the topic they are to compete in. At the event, individual teams enter a room of judges and are presented with one of three problem types: Verbal, Hands-on, or Verbal/Hands-On.
Nordstrom’s victorious team presented their humorous skit on ways to stop pollution from harming animals during the March 15 school board meeting, where they received a certificate of recognition for their accomplishments.
Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.
For the past four years, Nordstrom has competed in Odyssey of the Mind. This year, the local school sent six teams comprised of 35 students to Belmont to compete in the regional long-term and short-term problem solving competition.
