Odyssey of the Mind: Benicia Sends Two Teams to State Finals

On Saturday, March 23, two Benicia Middle School teams competed at the California state tournament of Odyssey of the Mind (OOTM), held at Heritage High School in Brentwood.  These two teams advanced to the state tournament by placing among the top three teams in their divisions at the SF Bay Regional Tournament held March 2 at Concord High School.  Seventeen Benicia teams, representing all four Benicia Unified School District (BUSD) elementary schools, as well as BMS and BHS, competed at the Regional Tournament. BUSD’s participation in OOTM is coordinated by Kristyn Andrews, a teacher at Matthew Turner Elementary. 

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.  While teams have adult coaches, the students are responsible for all planning, collection and construction of materials, and writing of the presentations, which often include humor and musical elements. Coaches and parents are not permitted to offer suggestions or to opine on the team’s ideas.  Strict penalties are assessed for any adult assistance.  Team members apply their creativity to solve “long-term” problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics, as well as “spontaneous” problems presented on the spot at tournaments and solved as a team in a very limited time.  Performances in both long-term and spontaneous problems are graded on multiple elements.  Teams with the two highest combined scores in each division go on to compete in the World Tournament against other teams from the US and about 25 other countries.

The first team representing Benicia at the California Tournament consisted of seven members from Benicia Middle School and Matthew Turner Elementary: sixth-graders Taylor Ferreira, Rachel Lynch, Sabrina Petersen, Lily Ruiz, and Gabriella Tenret, and fifth-graders Peyton Lyle and Bailey McLaughlin.  This team, BMS Team C, was coached by Sharon Lynch and Christi Tenret.  The team competed in the category of “ARTchitecture: The Musical”, in which the long-term problem was the creation and performance of an original musical performance that included a replica of a documented architectural structure built between 1000AD and 1600AD, three works of art that disappear mysteriously, two characters on a quest to find them, the incorporation of the works of art into the architectural replica, and two original songs with choreography.  All of this to be completed by seven children, with no adult assistance other than time-management, and performed in front of judges and an audience for eight minutes.

This team presented a story of art seemingly stolen from the Reims Cathedral, complete with a clever incorporation of three backdrops in a single origaml-like piece of scenery, two quarrelling detectives, a sassy janitor, violin accompaniment, and a secret in the basement.  While the team placed fifth in the combined scores for long-term and spontaneous problems, they earned second place in their division for their performance of their long-term problem.

The second team was composed of seven BMS sixth-graders: Jack Blaettler, Timmy Jennings, Evan Leong, Liam Madigan, Adam Ruiz, Trevor Sartor, and Jacob Sauter,  BMS Team A, coached by Paul Ruiz, competed in “It’s How You Look at It”.  Their long-term problem was to create a humorous performance including two characters that act in a manner that appears natural to them, but odd to those around them.  One of these characters needed to later find itself among others reacting to its odd behavior; the other was to find itself in a situation where it was suddenly no longer odd.  The problem was required to include a meter indicating the degree of oddness, and a creative scene change.

This long-term problem was sponsored by NASA, which may have been the inspiration for the team’s decision to set Scene 1 during the “Farm Wars” in outer space, during which “Darth Cow” and his minions accidentally transported a taco salesman from a Renaissance Faire into the “Milk Star”.  The Space Cows later found themselves back at the Renaissance Faire, visiting the highly successful “Ye Olde Pi Taco” stand.  Communication difficulties arising from the Space Cows’ ability to speak only in rhyme and the Renaissance Faire participants' only speaking in simile were finally resolved through one of the musical numbers incorporated by the team, even though the category did not require musical performance.  The team received positive feedback from the judges on many of the humorous elements in its performance, and placed 13th in the combined scores.

Both teams were pleased to have BMS principal Mike Minahen attend the event.