Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 8, 1992 TAG: 9203080218
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The competitors were students - 1,700 of them, from school systems throughout Western Virginia.
They came to the Virginia Tech campus Saturday for the Odyssey of the Mind competition that tested their skills in solving complex tasks and problems.
The tournament encouraged the students to be creative and original in solving long-term and spontaneous problems that were presented to them as part of the competition.
There were 258 teams in all ages from 16 school systems - from kindergarten children to high school seniors. The competition was conducted by groups of grades, with each Odyssey team consisting of five to seven members.
Some of the skill-testing tasks for the children were engineering problems while others were tests of skits and dramatic performances.
For the youngest children in kindergarten and the first two grades, the problem-solving exercise was to create a clown and perform a skit that taught something about natural science or the physical world.
In another problem in Saturday's competition, the teams were required to do an "Alice in OM-erland" dramatic performance, with certain guidelines: The performance had to include Alice, music, poetry, an eccentric character, a plant or flower that came to life and a manufactured item that came to life.
The time limit for the performance was eight minutes and the materials used for props could not exceed $75 in value.
Some students spend months preparing for the Odyssey competition.
Allison Ellis and her teammates at Cave Spring Junior High started rehearsing their Alice in OM-erland performance last October. They rehearsed at least twice a week. The team wrote and developed the skit jointly, Ellis said.
Northside High School's team spent only three weeks preparing and rehearsing its Alice production, which nonetheless drew lots of laughs. Alice, played by Mark Clark, was portrayed as a maid with a scrub brush. Clark wrote the skit with help from his teammates.
The teams are judged on two types of tasks: a long-term problem, where teams develop solutions and bring them to the competition, and a spontaneous problem given to them Saturday.
One long-term problem in Saturday's competition required the teams to design and build a balsa-wood structure to balance and support as much weight as possible.
Another test required the teams to design, build and run five small vehicles, each using a different power source, with each completing a part of the course and trying to break a balloon target.
In still another engineering problem, the teams were required to use the movement of a weight to complete specific tasks in a delayed manner.
The Craig County High School team's devices to solve the delayed-reaction problem did not operate as planned, but the students said they still enjoyed the competition.
"Even if it didn't work out, it was fun and now we can watch other people," said Jessica Huffman.
Some spontaneous problems are verbal while others are "hands-on," such as moving a raw egg through a series of obstacles.
More than 100 people volunteered their time to be judges to rate the teams' performances. The judges include teachers, architects, engineers, physicians, artists, writers and school administrators.
Saturday's competition was part of the international Odyssey of the Mind program, which has thousands of participating schools throughout the world. Each year, new long-term problems are developed to cover a wide range of the students' interests.
The tournament has grown rapidly in Western Virginia since it began nine years ago. Marlene Preston, who helped get it started, said there were 36 teams in the inaugural event.
The first tournament was held at the Andrew Lewis School in Salem. The competition was moved to Roanoke College because more space was needed. It outgrew Roanoke College and moved to the Tech campus three years ago.
Preston, an English teacher at Western Virginia Community College, said scores of parents volunteered to help with the tournament that was scattered among half a dozen buildings on the Tech campus. Her son, Channing, was also a participant.
Many children in the Odyssey program are gifted, Preston said, but it is not restricted to the gifted. Some schools use it to enrich their curriculum.
THE RESULTS from Saturday's competition will be printed in Monday's editions.
by CNB