Two teams advance to Odyssey World Finals
April 18, 2024
The team from Streams Elementary School that solved the vehicle problem, “Drive-In Movie,” earned first place in division one. Team members include Ellie Finnegan, Roman Duffy, Emily Michalak, Julia Ross, Ben Caesar, Quin Thorp and Cole Hirzel. The team is coached by Brett Duffy and Nadine Michalak.
The team’s task was to design, build and run a vehicle with a team-created rider that travels to a drive-in theater. In the performance, the movie was required to take place all around the vehicle. A team-created special-effect occurred on the vehicle, which made it seem to become part of the action.
The Boyce team designed, built and operated an Artificial Intelligence device that determined if a work of art is beautiful or not. The device was required to dismantle a work of art that it decides is not beautiful to create a new work of art that it believes is beautiful. The humorous performance also called for an artist character, sound effects and team-created artwork.
At the State Finals, more than 150 teams from across Pennsylvania competed by division in one of five chosen problems: vehicle, technical, classics, balsa and performance. In total, nine Upper St. Clair teams competed at the state-level competition.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international STEAM program that fosters creative problem-solving skills, teamwork and ownership in students from grades K through 12. One of the trademarks of the program is its “no outside assistance” philosophy. All ideas, scripts, props, solutions and paperwork are generated by the team members with no input from coaches, parents or teachers.
For more information about Odyssey of the Mind in Upper St. Clair or to register for summer Ingenuity Camp, June 24-28 at Fort Couch Middle School, visit www.uscootm.com or email uscootm@gmail.com.
