In its inaugural year, S.S. Seward’s high school Odyssey of the Mind team is going to the World Finals! This year’s competition will be held at Iowa State University from May 27-30th.

 

Odyssey of the Mind (OM) encourages students to use their natural creativity to become expert problem-solvers.  Students are presented with a unique, open-ended problem and must use their personal interests and passions to design an original solution.

 

“This team is so successful because every day they are celebrating each other and discussing how to add to each other’s work,” said coach Evan Lally. “These guys are incredible at hyping each other up.”

 

The students had no trouble naming each other’s strengths and celebrating what everyone brought to the team.

 

“Pippa and Autumn are really great artists,” said Violet Collins, the team’s robotics expert. “Emma is a really good actress and knows so much about being on stage. Charlie is really good at script writing and is very funny, Sophia is so great at being part of a team and pulling our strengths together. Ellory is really good at mechanical techniques and especially good at creative thinking under pressure.”

 

Throughout the process, students develop a variety of life skills including teamwork, budgeting, time management, public speaking and many more. 

 

“We all have different strengths and talents,” said Pippa Carey. “Our school is small, so we know each other anyway, but without Odyssey I wouldn’t collaborate with and get to know this group as well as I have.”

 

After celebrating securing their spot in the World Finals, the team immediately began reflecting on their scores and what changes they needed to make before the next level of competition. 

 

“A big part of Worlds is making sure we improve on everything,” said Autumn Montanez. “We’re using our score sheet to plan and brainstorm creative improvements. We talked about going, and we all agreed we want to have fun, but we want that experience of being competitive.”

 

Students said one of their favorite aspects of OM is having full ownership of their problem. While coaches provide guidance, encouragement and help students build skills, they do not contribute ideas or direction for the solution itself. Coaches may teach general skills, but they cannot apply those skills directly to the team’s solution. Ultimately, the problem-solving process and final solution belong entirely to the students. 

 

“Mr. Lally is a really good coach,” said Carey. “He wasn’t thinking about how we could win, he wanted to know what we wanted to do and what would be fun for us … He did exactly what he was supposed to do. He didn’t comment on what he shouldn’t have, but was so supportive and enthusiastic.”

 

Please join us in celebrating these incredible students and wishing them luck as they take on World Finals!