FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Hundreds of kids from the Fort Collins area put six months of preparation to work this past weekend at the Odyssey of the Mind tournament, where points were scored for creativity, skill and perhaps a bit of luck.
Mouse traps propelled imaginary salmon away from a bear and toward a series of targets in a project cooked up by five third-graders from Werner Elementary School.
“We learned to try and to believe,” said Veronica Knipp, 8, who created her team’s theme based on “what we see in the wild, in forests.”
The children were presented with a problem in which assorted tasks—such as causing small vehicles to go through a tunnel, into a target and more—were to be completed only with the power of a mouse trap’s action. They competed at the Fossil Ridge High School gymnasium in a division of kids from kindergarten to fifth grade.
Some of the team’s salmon—little carts on wheels, with images of fish stuck to their sides—completed their tasks exactly as expected, but others veered away or lost power before reaching their goals.
Teammate Ryan Miller, 9, said he learned perseverance. One of the salmon was disabled by a broken part; Ryan set up another car on the fly.
“I think we did pretty good,” he said, adding that he enjoyed the event.
Chris Miller, who is Ryan’s father and the team’s coach, said after they started meeting in October, the students worked nights and weekends, giving up “prime playtime.”
“It prepares them for challenges they’re not going to learn in school,” he said, adding that among the challenges are leadership and cooperation toward a common goal.
The kids do most of the projects’ work themselves, and any help adults provide is described for the judges.
Chris Miller said he helped Ryan use a jigsaw, a band-saw and a drill press to cut out props used in the eight-minute competition.
“That’s very cool to see for a third-grader,” he said.
The mouse-trap competition was one of several at the high school on Saturday.
Bennett International Baccalaureate World School did a Rube Goldberg project with all recycled material. Empty boxes of pizza, snacks and soft drinks were set up for a chain reaction that dropped the last item into a recycling bin.
Winners in the competition later compete at the state level and can even proceed to an international tournament.
Odyssey of the Mind has offered the program for more than 25 years, encouraging kids to solve problems through long-term preparation as well as spontaneous execution.
“They are free to express their ideas and suggestions without fear of criticism. The creative problem-solving process rewards thinking ‘outside of the box,'” according to a flier.
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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan,
