Local Students To Participate In International Creativity Competition

Paul Duke STEM HS Odyssey of the Mind team heads to ‘World Finals’ in Iowa at the end of this month.

A group of seven talented and determined young ladies from Peachtree Corners are off to conquer the world this month in a competition that requires creativity, wit, spontaneity and a whole lot of courage.

The Odyssey of the Mind World Finals is the pinnacle of a decades-old program that teaches youngsters to use creative problem-solving activities that require knowledge along with their imagination to build, fix and create what might have been unimaginable. Odyssey of the Mind was founded in 1978 to foster original and divergent thinking.

Through the Odyssey of the Mind program, organizers promote creativity by challenging teams to solve problems with more than one solution, according to its program guide. By working as one unit, participants learn teamwork, the appreciation and understanding of others and that a group is a more powerful thinking force than an individual.

The guide went on to add that the students develop a sense of self-respect and respect for others through preparatory activities such as brainstorming and role-playing. Many of the most successful teams are those with participants with a wide difference in interests such as dance and sports, math and poetry, etc.

The Paul Duke STEM High School Odyssey of the Mind team will head to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa to take on youth from as far away as Europe and South America. This is the fifth year in a row for a team comprised of six high school freshmen who attend Paul Duke STEM and Norcross High School and one middle schooler from Pinckneyville MS.

Five of the seven members of this team have been to Odyssey of the Mind World Finals four times before. Each one competed on Pinckneyville Middle’s team for the last three years, which won fourth place in 2019 and first place in 2020 as well as first place in the World Finals Virtual and In-person competition. Five of the members won first place in 2018 on the team from Simpson Elementary.

The competition has three divisions for k-12 students that break down by age, but are generally elementary, middle and high school. And within the divisions, there are five different types of “problems” for students to tackle.

The Peachtree Corners kids always focus on Problem 5 – Performance, where scoring is based mostly on the performance and elements within the performance. It sometimes requires a specific character, sometimes humor, sometimes an original story, but it’s always supposed to be fun.

Unfortunately, the competition isn’t low-cost. While the participants are only allowed to spend $150 on materials for props and costumes, registration, transportation and lodgings for events can run into the thousands of dollars.

For that reason, the Paul Duke team has set up a GoFundMe page seeking donations for the May 25-28 trip to the Midwest.

Learn more about the Paul Duke STEM High School Odyssey of the Mind team here.