Three Odyssey of the Mind teams from Trumbull traveled to Maryland to represent the State of Connecticut in the 2008 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. More than 800 teams from the United States and around the world competed at this year's World Finals held May 31 - June 3 at the University of Maryland. For the third year in a row, Trumbull Odyssey of the Mind Teams advanced to the World Finals after winning their divisions in the Connecticut State Tournament. Only the top two teams in each division for each problem are invited to compete at the World Finals.

Booth Hill's Technical Team placed 7th in the World Finals for the DinoStories problem for Division I. The team of 5th graders includes Avery Collins, Matthew Freed, Megan Kelly, Madison Kustom, Rory Morrison, Josh Pavel and Michael Zabin. Hillcrest's Classics Team placed 11th in the Wonderful Muses problem for Division II. Magdalena Abrego, Jenna Bellofiore, Ellie Grossman, Rebecca Kaiserman and Alyssa Zabin make up this team of 8th graders. This is the third year in a row at Worlds for Hillcrest's Performance Team who placed 21st in the Eccentrics problem. The team of 6th, 7th and 8th graders is comprised of Tyler Bieling, Ellen Carpenter, Anurag Chinepalli, Jeremy Eckl, Brooke Hayden, Brent Kaiserman and Owen Osborne. "We are so proud of these kids" said Carolyn Collins, coach of the Booth Hill Team. "They competed against the best teams from around the US and world and did extremely well."

Odyssey of the Mind is an international problem solving competition for students of all ages. The program is designed to stimulate and promote children's natural creativity. Participants are encouraged to seek creative and varied solutions to problems - they are taught to think outside the box. "These kids are amazing" said Debbie Zabin, Odyssey Coach of two teams from Booth Hill and Hillcrest. "They have such inventive minds and have learned to work together as a team to solve challenging problems in highly creative ways."

The Odyssey of the Mind program consists of two parts; long term and spontaneous problem solving. Each team selects one of five long term problems and works from October through March to create a solution. Team members must solve all aspects of the problem entirely on their own without any outside assistance from coaches or parents. The role of the coach is to help the team develop problem solving strategies and skills and to expose the team to methods, techniques and materials. During the competition, the team presents its solution to the long term problem. The solution is evaluated according to specific problem criteria and following the presentation, the judges question the team members about their solution.

The second part of the competition evaluates the team's spontaneous problem solving skills. Throughout the year the team practices solving various types of short term problems that require either an individual verbal response, a coordinated group response, the building of a structure or the accomplishment of a task. At the competition, the team enters the Spontaneous room alone and is asked by the judges to solve one of these types of problems within a specific time frame.
The team's score on their long term solution is combined with its spontaneous score to determine the final score. "They had such a wonderful experience at World's" said Nancy Eckl, long time Odyssey coach. "The kids are already looking forward to solving next year's problems."

The teams worked hard to help raise both awareness of their accomplishment and funds necessary to get to Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. The teams rely on both private and public donations to help cover the required registration fees. "We would like to thank the members of the community for their support and generosity," added Eckl.

For more information about Odyssey of the Mind, contact Debbie Zabin at 380-2089 or go to www.odysseyofthemind.org.

Members of Booth Hill School's Odyssey of the Mind Technical Team who competed in the DinoStories problem category at the 2008 World Finals hosted by the University of Maryland, from left, are Madison Kustom, Rory Morrison, Avery Collins, Megan Kelly, Michael Zabin, Josh Pavel, and Matt Freed.

Members of Hillcrest Middle School's Odyssey of the Mind Performance Team who competed in the Eccentrics problem category at the 2008 World Finals hosted by the University of Maryland, from left, are Brooke Hayden, Ellen Carpenter, Jeremy Eckl, Brent Kaiserman, Anarag Chinepalli, Owen Osborne, and Tyler Bieling.

Members of Hillcrest Middle School's Odyssey of the Mind Classics Team who competed in the Wonderful Muses problem category at the 2008 World Finals hosted by the University of Maryland, from left, are Alyssa Zabin, Rebecca Kaiserman, Ellie Grossman, Magdalena Abrego, and Jenna Bellofiore.