Greenbriar West Elementary School’s Odyssey of the Mind team has had an amazing year.
After winning first place in the state finals, the team traveled to Iowa State University in Des Moines, to compete in the World Finals, where it placed sixth.
"The kids have worked extremely hard after they won the state final. They met every weekend and I think their best performance was at the World's," said Radhika Rao, Odyssey school coordinator.
The excitement at the University was palpable as teams from all over United States and other countries came in together for an opening ceremony that jostles to be on par with the one held at the Olympic Games.
The team of seven children and their coach stayed in the dorms, and even practiced spontaneous problems late into the night before heading out to score an astounding 93.33 out of a possible 100. The team’s long-term problem was to design and build a device that could transfer objects from assigned areas and to incorporate the whole into a performance.
Through the fun and excitement, the team grew serious and reflective as the time got closer and their focus on the problem at hand was commendable. Putting forth their best performance, the team then sat back to enjoy, marvel and learn from other teams that astonished as much as entertained them through the days.
Avanti Shirke, Andrew Kim, Esther Yi, Kaavya Rao, Romita Mandal, Yashu Sampathkumar and Joon Cho are the proud students of Greenbriar West Elementary that placed 6th among 49 other teams in Division 1, Tech Transfer!
Here’s a link for the scores.
http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/wf2006/competitions_scores.php