Seniors Rhys Floyd, Erin Morrison, and Ava Naple, along with juniors Caylie Bleyl and Avery Fenton, came together as an Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM) team when they were in elementary school, and they’ve remained a team for the past decade. This year, they will cap their OOTM careers with their fourth visit to the World Finals — a B-P record — where they will become the first team in school history to compete in the World Finals in two problems.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international creative problem-solving program. Each participating team spends months preparing an eight-minute skit that solves one of five “long-term” problems, then in the “spontaneous” portion of the competition, team members solve problems they have not seen before. The BPHS team, which is coached by Dave and Megan Floyd, advanced to the World Finals after placing second at the state championship in both problem 2, “Hide in Plain Sight,” and problem 5, “Opposites Distract.” B-P’s team prepared one solution that solved both long-term problems.
The 40th World Finals will take place May 22-25 at Michigan State University. Team members are raising money to fund their trip. Community members who would like to support the team’s fundraising efforts can send checks payable to Broadalbin-Perth Odyssey of the Mind to the district office, 20 Pine Street, Broadalbin, NY 12025.