Happy Valley - 2006 Odyssey of the Mind

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition for students from K-12 to college. Through solving open-ended problems, students develop creative-thinking skills that can be applied to real-life situations. Both Happy Valley teams took 1st place in their respective State level competitions and will be joining teams from throughout the U.S. and more than 20 other countries. "Jungle Bloke" and "Ancient Egypt" teams of the world, you are hereby put on notice: we're coming to Iowa.

We have 14 kids from 12 families, 4 coaches and equipment to transport and house for almost a week in Ames, Iowa. Each family is going to be paying about a minimum of $1,200 per child plus the coaches' expenses. We've set our fund raising goal at $20,000 to help defray the costs of this endeavor. On top of that are mounting expenses for transport and housing of supporting parents and siblings, it's not difficult to imagine this becoming an expensive proposition!

Friday, May 26, 2006

Pictures From Ames

Today was a big day for both of Happy Valley's Odyssey of the Mind teams. The work they've put into their performance over the prior months has brought them all closer together as teammates. The Jungle Bloke team, seen here preparing for an outing, has been working on their act, attending to last minute touch ups and practicing for spontaneous competitions.

As the Jungle Bloke team prepared this morning for their final encore, you could see their excitement and enthusiasm. They delivered their performance shortly after 10 A.M. (Central Time) and put on their best performance yet. We're keeping our fingers crossed, the outcome won't be known until the awards are announced at tomorrow night's ceremony. The next step is the spontaneous problem, which they're scheduled for tomorrow monring. While they did very well, they're up against teams from around the country who had prevailed in their respective elimination rounds.

The Ancient Egypt team delivered their grand finale shortly after 12 noon. Their performance was well executed, their witty script was very impressive and demonstrated the kid's creativity and talent. There's no pictures to post yet but we'll be back with more from the Egyptians soon. Immediately after the Happy Valley team's performance, their Lamorinda rivals from Glorietta School did their Ancient Egypt act. What a great testament to the cleverness and talent of the kids in our region, Glorietta is the next school past Hidden Valley and here they and Happy Valley are both competing against kids from around the world!

As previously posted, the global presence here in Ames, Iowa is really awesome. While we've enjoyed seeing kids from New York, Arkansas and Texas perform, the teams from Korea, Hong Kong and around the world have been a true delight. Their solutions to the Odyssey of the Mind problems, viewed through these various domestic and international cultural prisms (to say nothing of the pin trading) have been terrific. Here's a great picture of a group of competitors from Korea.

             

posted by Omer @ 12:50 PM

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