BPHS Odyssey of the Mind team heads to state championship looking for a return trip to World Finals.
The Broadalbin-Perth Jr./Sr. High School Odyssey of the Mind team is heading to the state championships on March 26 in Syracuse following the team’s first-place finish at the regional competition. The team finished first in both of the long-term problem categories they competed in.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international creative problem-solving competition that challenges teams to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. Each team presents its unique solution to its chosen long-term problem in one portion of the competition; in the spontaneous portion, teams must solve a problem they have never seen before given finite resources and a time limit.
The B-P team includes freshman Ryan Michalski and sophomores Jacob Hughes, Lauryn Donahue, Logan Aery, Blaine Herrick, and Jaciano Carrero. The coaches are Alison and Carl Aery.
The team will compete at the state championships against other high school teams in both problem 2, “Odyssey ReOMvention,” and problem 5. According to the Odyssey of the Mind website, problem 2 requires the team to “present a performance that identifies an original threat to the environment that self-replicates until a team-created technical reOMvention removes the threat.” Problem 5 requires the team to “create a performance about a young person enjoying a regular life in our world who wakes up one day to discover they somehow were transported into a circus world.” The BPHS team solved both long-term problems with one solution.
The team has been together for several years and advanced to the World Finals last year. The top two teams in each problem and division at the state championships will advance to this year’s World Finals at Iowa State University.
