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Odyssey competition promotes creativity, teamwork

By Jonathan Hillenbrand

PSU College of Communications

Every year kindergarteners to college-age students participate in Odyssey of the Mind, an academic competition meant to increase creativity and foster problem-solving skills.

William Allen High School, from Allentown, Pa., has been competing in Odyssey of the Mind for several decades. The school's program is run by Karen Comegys, a math teacher who took over as adviser ten years ago.

     Comegys is a big supporter of the program and tries to get as many students involved as possible. As a mentor to students, Karen likes to be there for help, but also steps back, allowing her students to efficiently work together and form the bonds that make Odyssey of the Mind enjoyable.

      The competition starts at the regional level and goes all the way to an international contest near the end of the academic year. Pennsylvania is divided into seven regions, of which the top two teams of each advance to the state competition.

      Teams have seven student-members and choose problems to solve. Odyssey of the Mind provides these five problem categories that change requirements every year: vehicle, structure, environmental, classics and technical.

     One example of such a problem is the balsa structure category. Students are given a set of requirements to build a structure, made of balsa wood, to hold weights. Past problem requirements have been to build structures in a pod formation and in a cylindrical fashion. Student teams are allowed to solve multiple problems by creating different solutions to solve each problem, or one solution to solve multiple problems.

      The students are required to create skits to showcase their creative solutions to their chosen problems. The props and sets should be built out of second-hand items as much as possible, since teams are required to have a maximum budget that is usually about $150. This adds to the creative process of solving problems that may be more technical in nature or more extravagant than the others.

      Although Comegys loves the atmosphere of the competition, this will be her final year in the program. She has decided to leave for financial reasons. As Odyssey of the Mind adviser for the past ten years, Comegys has been paying for most of the expenses the teams accumulate as they make their trips from the regional to state competitions, and possibly to the world competition. She provides the money with the expectation that she will be reimbursed through school district funding and fundraisers. However, as of this year, she has yet to be fully compensated for the money she has invested in the teams.

      This year's Odyssey of the Mind team participated in two problems, creating a skit to solve each situation. The team advanced from the regional competition where they placed second, to the state competition where they placed in the bottom four, ending their run to the world competition.

    

Audio

Student members of William Allen High School's Odyssey of the Mind team talk about Karen Comegys' character and influence on their lives.  The team consists of Olivia Fay, Alex Hoffman, Steph Lamb, Jana Miller and Elliot Ramos.

  • Learn more about Odyssey of the Mind at their Web site, including more details about how the competition works.
  • View more work by Jon Hillenbrand in his online portfolio.