Students who received honors in the state competition are, from left, Arsh Siddiqui, Vishnudev Jeyaraj, Viraj Chegu, Ayush Viswanathan, Likhitha Addagatla, Rithika Murugesan and Ella Chandan.
A team of fifth grade students from Forest Edge Elementary School won first place in the state Odyssey of the Mind competition on Saturday, April 13, and these students will compete in Odyssey of the Mind World finals to be held next month (May 22-25) at Michigan State University, Lansing.
The Forest Edge team has been working on their problem and presentation since October 2012. Their problem required the team “to create and present an original performance that includes building an email network server that has to send three emails to different locations with a spam filter and get a return receipt.”
Viswanathan praised his Forest Edge team, which took first place in NoVa Region 9 OTM competition last month, for their "huge accomplishment" in finishing first in the regional and state tournaments and for their hard work throughout this year.
"I am so proud of them," Viswananthan said. "These kids worked very hard every weekend and the other times as needed from October including spring break and holidays to design, build their solution and practice their performance."
Viswanthan said it was the team's demonstration of the creative solution for their long-term problem, on-the spot spontaneous performance and teamwork that brought them up to first place. This is a great achievement to them."
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics.Those who would like to donate may send checks made out to Forest Edge PTA—OOTM and mail the checks to the school office, 1501 Beacon Tree Lane, Reston 20190 or go to http://forestedgepta.com/?pageid=110 and make a donation there.