Hundreds of students gathered at Pennsbury High School on Saturday to take part in the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition.
The competition brought together students of all ages in Pennsbury and surrounding districts to take part in the unique problem-solving competition. The Pennsbury School District had 23 teams and more than 160 students participating in competition.
Advertisements
At its core, Odyssey of the Mind is a competition to hone problem-solving abilities. Each team selects one of five problems for students to create a solution to during the competition. The problems act as open-ended questions and teams spend months perfecting their solution. On the day of the competition, teams perform and present their solutions. In some cases, they are skits telling stories and in others, they are vehicles the teams create. A second part of competition, the spontaneous portion, gives teams no prep time to come up with solutions to the presented problems.
One of Pennsbury High School’s teams is made up of freshmen and sophomores. Led by coaches Ettie Petroski and Kirstyn O’Donnell, the students created a skit loosely based upon Alice in Wonderland and other disney films.
Every part of the skit, from the props and choreography to the music and dialogue, is completed by the students: coaches act more like supporters than coaches who offer solutions to the teams’ problems.
Advertisements
“I really think that everyone on the team works on everything,” said Noah Petroski, a 10th grader and most senior member of the team.
Some of the other students were involved for the first time on Saturday and felt the nerves of competition creeping up on them.
Advertisements
“No matter what happens, I am proud of what we have done,” said Sarah Uhlman, a 9th grader on the team.
The whole team is motivated to go on to the next level of competition. after the state level, qualifying teams can go to the world competition, which is being held this year at Iowa State University.
The team picked their problem by way of vote.
Advertisements
“When you have a team, you know that you can do anything,” Uhlman said.
“I just love this whole experience,” said Ettie Petroski. “It’s just amazing to see the students come together and solve the problem.”
Advertisements
“I am just glad to be part of watching these guys brainstorm and solve the problem, it is something surely missing today,” Petroski said.
Petroski and O’Donnell’s team consists of Noah Petroski (10th grade), Sarah and Becca Uhlman (10th grade, 9th grade), Danielle Gershman (9th grade), Rowan Leventhal (9th grade) and Robert Zelin (10th grade).
Advertisements
The Pennsbury Odyssey of the Mind Association (POMA) begins the process of preparing for competition at the beginning of the school year, according to Linda Lamarre, the communications official for POMA. The association runs problems each month leading up to the competition to get students ready for competition.
This is Pennsbury’s fourth year in a row hosting the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition. Any teams advancing to the state competition will travel to Pocono High School, Lamarre said.
Advertisements
Lamarre has been involved in the program for six years. For three of those years, she was a coach of teams, and has had three kids take part in the program.
