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Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics.
The Cos Cob Classics Team of Julian Wang, Angelica Marin, Nathan Apelgren, Kenneth Wilber, Juliette Homewood, Ronit Gupta and Deirdre Cunniffe placed first in Problem No. 3: Aesop Gone Viral, Division I. Using a restricted budget, the team created and presented an original performance about a fable gone "viral." The performance was set in a past era and included a narrator character, an artistic representation of the fable's moral, and a character who makes a wrong conclusion about the moral and is corrected.
The Parkway Vehicle Team of Ellery Futch, Drew Hanna, Alex McGarvey, Sam Santangelo and Jackson Schnabel qualified for the World Finals after placing second in Problem No. 1: No-Cycle Recycle, Division I. In Problem No. 1, teams build, ride on and drive a no-cycle, recycling vehicle while not exceeding a budget limit. Traveling without pedaling for propulsion, the vehicle must pick up discarded items, adapt them in some way then deliver them to places to be re-used. Each team was also required to make an unplanned stop along the way to perform a random act of kindness.
In addition, three GPS teams earned the Jill Riggles Award for Excellence in Spontaneous, given to the top scoring team for the spontaneous problem within each division. The three teams were: Parkway Vehicle Team, Parkway Technical Team and Cos Cob Classics Team.
The GPS students presented their 8-minute long-term problem solution to judges. Each team also completed a “Spontaneous Problem” as a team: a quick creative-thinking problem.
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