Golden Hill students flex creative muscles at Odyssey of the Mind tournament

Golden Hill Elementary recently had three teams compete at the New York State Region 5 Odyssey of the Mind tournament, which took place Saturday, March 2.

For the competition, Odyssey of the Mind students “are presented with a problem and they have to use their creativity to solve that problem. Along the way, they learn lots of different skills that they can apply to those problems and to their solution,” explained Bianca Mendola, school counselor at Golden Hill. “The kids did a phenomenal job,” she shared. Mendola coached the teams along with teachers Amber Saunders and Evan Lally.

After tryouts at the beginning of the school year, each team worked to solve the problem presented to them. They work together a few times a week after school to create a performance letting their creativity flow. Coaches can help teach the skills needed, but the students apply the skills to the problem themselves. Two primary teams of five students each, from the first and second grades, and one Division 1 team with seven students, from third, fourth and fifth grade shared their performances at the tournament.

Primary school students were presented with “The Night Life” challenge in which they had to create a performance based on a discovery made during the night.

The Division 1 team chose from five challenges, picking “Rocking Words Detour,” which had them figuring out how to get a rock band back on tour.

“When we got on stage, I was a little nervous at first, but then it got better because I was focusing on our performance,” shared fourth grader Everett Misir. His teammate, fifth grader Liana Scheuermann, shared similar feelings. “I thought it was pretty fun. Once we got on stage it was just like in rehearsal,” she added.

Students also completed a timed spontaneous challenge.

“I think we learned more about our creative side and about what we can do with the things around us,” shared fifth grader Sophia Lin.