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Health & Fitness

Odyssey of the Mind is a Journey Worth Taking

A team cannot exist without coaches and there is a great need for volunteers. All you need is patience, a sense of humor and the ability to ask questions.

Odyssey of the Mind. Sounds like a laser light show set to Pink Floyd music. Which it could be, depending on the creativity of a particular team.

Odyssey of the Mind (OM) is an international program that challenges teams of students to use creative and critical thinking to solve problems. The program is designed for students at all academic levels. Facilitated by adult coaches, the entire process is kid-driven, from concept to design to construction to presentation. Anyone who has ever participated will tell you there is nothing quite like it for learning experience.

Each year, OM presents five problems, ranging from performance-based to highly technical. Teams select their problem and spend approximately five months developing a solution. The problems are very daunting, even for adults. All have required elements, but are deliberately vague so that teams have few restrictions on their creativity.

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Cindy Carroll is in her fifth year of running Brookfield OM. If you attended an open house, you’ve seen her presentation. She tirelessly recruits coaches and teams, and guides everyone through the program. As a result, Brookfield has put forth an impressive number of highly competitive teams in recent years. All seven Brookfield teams scored in the top 10 for 2011.

OM has four divisions based on age group. There is also a special primary problem for children K-second grade. Teams are limited to seven participants, with two coaches per team. A team cannot exist without coaches and there is a great need for volunteers. Each year, many children are turned away due to lack of coaches.

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Anyone can be a coach. All you need is patience, a sense of humor and the ability to ask questions. The role is primarily as facilitator. Coaches set meeting times and keep the team on track for the March 31 competition. There is a coaches’ training day held by Connecticut OM at the start of the program, to meet problem captains and receive some guidance.

The hardest part of being a coach is keeping quiet and out of the way. The beauty and benefit of this program for children is it’s their project from start to finish. The less adult influence, the better the program works. It is not unusual for teams to spend two months playing with something that will ultimately fail. Nothing is harder for a coach than standing by and letting that happen. The team learns as much — or more — from their mistakes as from their successes.

The team I coached last year chose a problem called “Good As Gold… berg.” They had to create a complex Rube Goldberg device to accomplish a simple task, along with a story about why the device was necessary. The theme chosen was dogs creating a device to feed themselves because their owners were too busy watching TV to remember. They spent four solid months developing and building the device, designing the backdrop, writing the script and creating costumes and props. They had lots of missteps, but ultimately delivered an outstanding performance that earned fourth place out of 19 teams. Their competition video is on YouTube (see above) — sorry for the bad audio. While there, check out the many OM team videos from around the world.

The competition is the endgame for OM each year. However, long before the team steps out before the judges, they will have achieved the real goals of this program. They learn to work as a team, with all that entails: listening to and respecting each other’s ideas, conflict resolution, negotiation and supporting one another. Plus many new skills are acquired. My team of seven boys got to work with serious power tools to build their device. Under the watchful guidance of co-coaches/dads, they learned rules for safety and correct use of machinery. Most of all, they learned to use their imaginations, to deconstruct big problems into smaller parts, to critically assess their work and to work collaboratively.

As a coach, I also learned a great deal and grew in unexpected ways along with the team. Though there were certainly times when I wondered what I’d gotten myself into, it was exciting to tackle such a challenging task and see it through. It is exhilarating to watch a group of children become a cohesive team that turns an impossible problem into a breathtaking solution.

If you are interested in coaching a team or having your child participate, please contact Cindy Carroll at 740-0874. Cost to participate is $60/child. For a preview of this year’s problems and to learn more, visit http://www.odysseyofthemind.com.  Cindy will also hold Parent and Student OM meetings for interested Huckleberry third and fourth graders on October 5 at 6:30 p.m. at HHES Media Center, and for students at Whisconier on October 6 at 7 p.m. in the WMS Media Center.

As a second-year coach, I can say this is the kind of enrichment program parents dream about. Children who have participated in the past return year after year, eager to apply what they’ve learned to a new challenge. Parent coaches will never spend better quality time with their children. Odyssey of the Mind is one of the best opportunities for children to expand their horizons and is, indeed, a journey worth taking.

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