The Crestwood High School School Odyssey of the Mind team, which recently earned first place in the state finals, received a $3,000 donation from the Crestwood Education Foundation to help with expenses for the World Finals next month at Iowa State University.
Cost of participating in the event is expected to exceed $8,000 and the team is conducting fundraisers to help with expenses. The donation from the Crestwood Education Foundation will cover cost of the team’s registration fee.
The Crestwood Secondary team won first place in the Division 3 vehicle problem at the state finals held at Lock Haven University. The team was presented with the Ranatra Fusca award at the awards ceremony. The award is given to teams or individuals who display tremendous creativity at the competition and represents the essence of the Odyssey of the Mind program.
The judges noted that the team showed exceptional knowledge and creative application of various legacy solid state electronic components which was demonstrated by their ability to design, build and implement advanced control circuits for their vehicles.
Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition, which involves science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). Students from kindergarten through college participate in this international program. The teams work on a long-term problem throughout the school year and present a long-term problem solution in competition. The long-term problem involves interpreting a problem specification, designing and building a solution to the requirements, developing a creative skit, creating a theatrical set and costumes. Additionally, during competition, the teams are challenged with a new spontaneous problem that must be solved within several minutes. The teams are ultimately scored on the creativity, engineering, style elements and functionality of the long-term problem solution, spontaneous problem teamwork and creativity of the solutions.
The mission of the Crestwood Education Foundation is to initiate, support, fund, and enhance the educational opportunities of students and faculty in the Crestwood School District. It focuses on funding innovative projects that enrich student learning in new and unique ways. The foundation funded a FIRST Lego League team (grades 4-8) and Lego Robotics summer enrichment camp for the past two years; sponsored the school assembly featuring Crestwood’s Distinguished Alumni speakers; purchased world language learning software for the use by the world language teachers and students; and currently supports the Odyssey of the Mind team’s (grades 11-12) experience at the world competition by paying the $3,000 entrance fee.
