Saturday, April 8th, OCSA’s Odyssey of the Mind groups participated at the Odyssey of the Mind State Tournament. Odyssey of the Mind is an international creative problem-solving program in which students apply their creativity to solve problems, Mr. McBride explains “Odyssey of the mind is kind of…let’s put the creative side of the brain together with the analytical side of the brain and produce something from it.”

Science teacher and sponsor, Jay McBride, was not allowed to help the team in any sort of way as they prepare for the event. The team has been working for the past few months, making their props and working on problems to get ready for competition.

The tournament itself is made up of two parts, a long-term problem and a spontaneous problem. Students chose their own problem for the long question and, from there, they make a “skit” where they make their own props and script. The spontaneous problem is a problem they give the team on the spot at the tournament. The team has no prior knowledge up until they receive the question, where they must then figure out a way to solve the problem based what type of problem they are assigned.  Spontaneous problems vary and could be either a word problem or a problem requiring the team to build something.

OCSA’s Odyssey of the Mind allows students from all majors to participate and solve problems using skills in their own majors or even allows students to experiment with skills outside of their major. “With OCSA, there’s all these art forms and Odyssey of the Mind is a lot about using those different art forms, so we have. But you can also work on skills outside of your art form, so we have an art major, visual arts major, who she’s helped a lot on props and making props and stuff and then we’ve got a couple of drama majors, who are the main characters in the play, and it makes it so good. Last year we had a dance major, choreographing dances for us, vocal majors writing song, creative writers writing scripts obviously. It’s just really cool to see all the art majors come together and make a production,” explained Caitlyn Lungstrum, an 8th grade creative writer on the team.

The OCSA team ended up placing the highest compared to any other team from Osceola County according to Mr. McBride. From here they will be preparing for future competitions. If interested in joining Odessey of the Mind, be on the lookout or speak to Mr. McBride as to how to join the team.