odyssey of mind?

Anyone had their elementary school kid participated in this? What is this actually ? some kind of kumon? please help me understand .

I am planning to attend parent info meeting , but would like know little something about it before going there.

My child is a second grader at hill side.

Thanks

 

Odyssey of the Mind is a kind of honors program. The kids create projects and solve problems.

 

I would say it's more like a team where the "sport" is creative thinking. It's a competition where kids spend the season meeting regularly to develop their long-term project as well as to practice spontaneous creative responses to puzzling questions. At the end of the season there is a competition where the teams present their project before judges and then demonstrate their spontaneous response skills, also for judging. The judges are very positive and fun, and the comments they provide are very encouraging. The long-term projects can include building a structure or creating a presentation in response to a problem the team selected at the beginning of the season. Parents help provide encouragement and keep them on track, but ALL the thinking and planning is done by the team. It's good for encouraging kids to exercise their creativity in a nonjudgmental environment, and also for helping kids learn to work as a team.

 

Thanks for responding . Any idea how much it costs?

 

I believe the cost depends on the team's expenses which is capped at under $150. Then that amount would be divided by the team. I do not believe there was any "general" fee to participate. You can find the problems for this year at http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/materials/2010problems.php

 

I don't remember paying anything. Maybe I did and forgot.

 

Hi everyone!

I'm the coordinator of Odyssey of the Mind at Hillside. Odyssey of the Mind is an incredible international program which starts as young as kindergarten through college aged students. The purpose is to teach kids how to solve problems collaboratively and creatively. This is an opportunity for all kids to let their imaginations soar because nothing is too far out in left field.

Each team will compete in two areas: a long term problem and spontaneous.

I'm going to use an example from the Odyssey of the Mind website for spontaneous. Your problem is to pretend you are a patient in an operating room and you hear noises and conversation. Say what you would like to hear or what you would not like to hear. You must begin each response with "I would like to hear . . ." or "I would not like to hear . . . ."

Creative responses are things like:
I would like to hear . . .
We're lucky we have two kidneys.
Your doctor's other patient is President Clinton.
He/she doesn't even know he/she won the lottery.
The stone passed -- we don't have to operate.
Your insurance will cover everything.

I would not like to hear . . .
Whoops!
The transplant organ is lost in the mail.
My cat wouldn't eat this liver.
What happened to the sponge?
You forget to pay your insurance bill.

Long term problems are just that. Each team chooses a problem they want to work on and as a team, must solve that problem in a creative way. This year's problems are Nature Trail'R, Return to the Gift of Flight, Discovered Treasures, Column Structure, Food Court, and for our youngest competitors in kindergarten through 2nd grade, Surprise Party. Full summaries may be found at http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/materials/2010problems.php as Audrey posted earlier.

One area which is often misunderstood is cost. Though it varies from school to school, assuming Hillside's PTO budget is approved at Back to School nights next week, there is a line item in there to cover the registration fees for our teams. I believe Mill Run's PTO also covers these fees but Eagle Ridge's teams must pay their own fees. Each problem has a set cost limit. We STRONGLY encourage the liberal use of recycling, checking what's in your basement, Freecycle and other inexpensive ways to get materials. If a problem allows you to spend $150, that is the maximum to be spent by the entire team on materials for your problem. If you have five team members, that would be $30 apiece if you spent every penny. Our primary team last year spent about $45. The only time cost may become a factor is if a team wins at the Regional level and goes to the State competition or wins there and goes to Worlds. While that would be *marvelous*, it's not expected.

There is also a misconception that Odyssey of the Mind is only for children who are gifted. Nothing can be further from the truth. While Odyssey is often very enticing to academically advanced kids, any child can participate and we welcome any and all applications to place children on teams. Even children receiving special education services successfully compete.

Hillside Elementary, Mill Run Elementary and Eagle Ridge Middle School are holding a joint Parent Information Night on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 (not the incorrect date I'm quite embarrassed to have sent to the entire school on Friday). The meeting will be held at 6:30 at the Eagle Ridge Middle School Library. I would like to welcome any interested parents to please take the time to come over and learn more about the program.

If anyone has questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them for you or refer you to the right person. This is my first year in this position but I've been involved for the past two years with the program at Hillside and competed myself when I was in high school many centuries ago.

Julie Hauer

 

thank you Julie for putting your time into a VERY cool program!

Our kids are so lucky to have opportunities like this to grow their brains and exercise academic muscles. every community should be so fortunate.

 

If they are in K, 1st or 2nd grade, they can only participate in the ONE event, is that right? Only if they are 3rd grade or older will they be able to choose from the others?

 

Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders are strongly encouraged to participate in the Primary problem, Surprise Party.

In that division, it's 100% about positive reinforcement and encouragement at the competition. Usually, competitors have never participated before and it's all new to them. Everyone at this level gets to participate in the spontaneous part of the competition. In the upper levels, you can have 7 members on a team but only 5 get to actually compete in spontaneous.

There are also different standards in judging and paperwork. All of the K-2 participants bring home a fancy ribbon from the regional competition. As no winner is named, they do not move on to the State competition.

It's just human nature, but there are often differences in maturity levels too. I personally would not feel comfortable in most circumstances placing a 2nd grader on a team that is comprised primarily of 5th graders. Add in the amount of background that a student would have which is not based on intelligence but based on exposure to lots of different experiences and in most cases, it would be setting the younger student up for failure. Odyssey of the Mind is supposed to be fun, not frustrating and I want to see all of the kids who choose to participate enjoy themselves.

All that said - there have been K-2 kids who have competed successfully on the other Division I problems. Usually, they are siblings of other Odyssey of the Mind team members but that is not a determining factor. If you have a child who really has a strong interest in one of the other problems, please talk to me or to the coordinator at your school as every application (and resulting placement!) is made on an individual, case-by-case basis. My mind is definitely open about this but I did want to present why K-2 participation is usually at the Primary level.

Also, when discussing the problems with your kids - please remember that these problems will be solved by the kids, not the parents. We do not "do their homework for them"! When adults step in, that's called "OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE" which is absolutely prohibited.

Julie

 

Odyssey of the Mind sounds like a great program but what I don't really understand is how it fits in with school - is it strictly just extra work, just for fun? There's no "extra credit" or any type of school recognition, correct? It's not like the gifted program where that goes on your academic record and you are channeled in to advanced courses and perhaps other academic opportunities. Odyssey of the Mind is just like any extracurricular activity but instead of a sport, scouts or learning an instrument you are learning thinking skills and problem solving?

 

Exactly - it's an extracurricular activity sponsored by the school. It has no connection whatsoever to SEARCH, FUTURA or SPECTRUM.

What I always have found attractive is that the skills you learn definitely transfer over to your academic work in school. They'll help your child in those advanced courses where you need creative and critical thinking skills. It personally helped me tremendously for test taking because the most important skill you learn is to read the problem. In graduate school, when I used to grade tests and papers, I was always shocked by the number of college undergraduates who couldn't seem to handle that - they'd write down everything they knew whether it was relevant or not and still not answer the question.

Julie

 

I had a kid at one time who was not into team sports - and this was a team activity where he could learn collaborative skills using his mind instead.

 

I realize it is very short notice but if there are any Hillside or Mill Run parents who cannot make the Odyssey of the Mind parent information night at Eagle Ridge Middle School on Tuesday, September 29th, you have another opportunity to get information about the program.

The coordinator at Creighton's Corner has graciously opened her parent information meeting to anyone who can't make the 29th. The meeting at Creighton's Corner will be Tuesday, September 15th (tomorrow!) at 7 pm in the school library. She is a wealth of information as she is a former coordinator at Mill Run.

I'd also like to invite Eagle Ridge parents as I know there is a conflict with the TJ information night at Stone Bridge but this is primarily for elementary students. It's better than nothing but the programs run a bit differently at the middle school level.

Julie

 

Julie's replies are spot on!

Before we moved to Ashburn, I coached my daughter's OM team for 2 years while she was in middle school.

Children of all academic abilities are able to participate, as it really teaches the kids to work together as a team and play off of each other's strengths.

I think very highly of this program!

 

Can anyone tell me when the teams meet? Or when they met in the past years? Immediately after school or are they scheduled for early evenings? We have a 1st grader at Mill Run and this seems right up his alley. Thanks!

 

Twohokies - I sent you a PM with contact information for the coordinator for Mill Run.

At Hillside, usually the teams meet in the homes of the members of each team, rotating between various houses in the late afternoon/early evening. It is possible to sometimes get permission to use school property for the meetings. The schedules depend upon what works for the team members and for the coaches - as most of our coaches work, their teams meet later than those coached by parents who are at home.

Julie

 

Dennis Godfrey, our regional coordinator for Odyssey of the Mind, shared with me the following link which includes embedded video links to actual long-term problem solution performances at the World Championships two years ago. Please keep in mind that these are all winning high school and middle school performances at the state level - elementary teams use the same problems but would look quite different as they don't have the same amount of life experience to draw from in solving the problems.

I hope this answers some questions about what the program actually looks like!

http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/plus/11/#1/1

Julie

 

REMINDER:

For any interested parents, there is a Parent Information Meeting tonight for Odyssey of the Mind in the Eagle Ridge Middle School library at 6:30 pm.

I hope to see many of you there!