The Odyssey of the Mind group wouldn't miss finals for the world.
Three Siloam Springs teams will represent Arkansas as they compete against more than 800 teams at World Finals this Wednesday through Saturday. They will leave Tuesday on a bus headed for Michigan State University and will stay there on campus in East Lansing for the four-day event.
"Odyssey of the Mind is an international problem-solving competition that competes on regional, state and world levels," said Carla Engel, president of Siloam Springs Creativity Alliance and regional director for Odyssey of the Mind of Northwest Arkansas.
The Odyssey of the Mind group is sponsored by Siloam Springs Creativity Alliance and meets in a building on Main Street, just east of downtown.
In competition, teams will present a solution to one of five problems from which they choose.
The middle school team, for example, selected the vehicle problem and has worked on it since fall.
"They must present their solutions in an 8-minute performance, complete with costumes and props created by the team," Engel said. Judges award points to teams on how creatively they solve the problem.
In the performance, the team operated a vehicle, which is a car inside a Happy Meal, through a series of stations. As the vehicle moves, they tell a story about a French fry that's left in the bottom of the bag and its attempt to find the missing Boardwalk game piece from the McDonald's Monopoly game.
"It's all a team effort," Drew Smith said. "No parents are allowed to help, and if they do help, it's a penalty."
Teams will be given a problem that they've not seen before and "solve it on the spot," Engel said.
Along with the middle school team, high school and college teams will represent Arkansas at World Finals. The college team will be the first collegiate team to represent Arkansas at finals in more than 20 years, Engel said.
Earlier this spring, the middle school team won at state, and the high school team took second place there. Before that, six Siloam Springs teams advanced to the state competition after the regional, which was hosted at John Brown University.
"It was really fun," said Bailey Schmidt, who's on the middle school team. This will be his and Max Ketcher's first time to finals. The two were excited about the trip, and looked forward to making new friends there.
"It's going to be fun," Ketcher said.
Four members of the middle school team made it two years ago: Smith, Joseph Connett, China Davidson and Theron Perkins.
They were looking forward to pin trading with other teams from throughout the world. Teams will bring pins to trade while they are not competing. The Siloam Springs teams will have pins with the team name and theme, which is Michael Jackson's "Thriller." The finals include opening and closing ceremonies, NASA exhibits and a dairy store serving ice cream.
"This has been a great OM year for Siloam Springs," Engel said. "In addition to great success at competition, we were able to be the host team for the Northwest Regional Tournament by partnering with John Brown University."
"With the support of JBU and the Siloam Springs School District, we are truly changing lives through creativity."
General News on 05/20/2015