Aquebogue's "Odyssey" Team Brings Home a Trophy

(March 26, 2008--Riverhead, NY) Aquebogue Elementary School's "Odyssey of the Mind" Team brought home a second place trophy in its first foray into the "Odyssey of the Mind" competition!

When asked, "Who came in first?" Fourth grade teacher Linda Borenstein stated, "I have no idea. When we heard our team came in second in their division I was so shocked that I couldn't remember anything else that happened. It was our first year in the competition and we were really just there for the experience. I'm so proud of these students. They worked very, very hard. They gave up recess; came in on Saturdays and always said, 'YES' when I asked them to spend time working on our entry. They deserve to be recognized for their outstanding effort and ability to work as a team."

There were 15 teams in their division--many from schools who compete yearly. The regional competition was held in the Rosemary Kennedy Center in Bellmore. "Odyssey of the Mind" is an international competition, and the regional winners will now move on to the state finals and finally compete in the international "Odyssey of the Mind" competition in Maryland in May. Aquebogue's Odyssey team included fourth graders Joshua Rosenbaum, Katelyn Zaneski, Kristin Campanelli, Megan Carrick, Kevin Womack, Samantha Kerrigan and Kerry Thomas. Mrs. Borenstein was their advisor and art teacher Maureen Ahern was an honorary member of the team.

According to the Odyssey website, "The Odyssey of the Mind teaches students to learn creative problem-solving methods while having fun in the process." Each team must choose a particular problem from those listed in the Odyssey program. Aquebogue's Odyssey team chose "Problem 5: The Eccentrics! which read, 'The problem requires teams to create a humorous performance about three Eccentric Characters that demonstrate odd behavior, peculiar mannerisms, and unconventional dress. The performance will include a team-created 'problem' within or involving an Earth system--the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, or hydrosphere. The Eccentric Characters, which seem to be misfits, will solve the problem. As a reward, a celebration is held in their honor and they end up launching a new fad.'"

"This was to be a humorous skit in which three eccentric characters had to come up with an ingenious, but not necessarily realistic, way to deal with a world problem," Mrs. Borenstein interpreted. "The emphasis in this competition is on team work and creativity. Our team chose global warming."

In their skit, global warming had caused the water to rise on Long Island and Aquebogue was under water. An eccentric character (Lifford the Lifeguard) with a boat found a way to communicate with a fish (Minnow), who spoke to the other fish through a vacuum cleaner salesman's (Harry Hoover) hose and convinced the other fish to use their fins and tails to bring cans of food from BJ's supermarket (now underwater) up to the surface to help feed the humans that were left. Only three of the characters could speak, so the rest of the team were fish.

"The team will present their skit for the school during our Earth Day assembly," noted their proud principal, Phil Kent.

The students also competed in question and answer sessions that, according to Mrs. Borenstein, "required them to think on their feet and to think outside the box. The competition," she explained, "had very strict rules about adult participation. Everything had to be done by the students or they lost points. We lost some points by having parents saw the wood for our set. They came in second, and they still have all their fingers!"

When asked by their fourth grade colleagues, "Was it fun?"

They replied with seven different answers that included, "Awesome, fantastic, really fun, fabulous, loved it, YES, I can't wait to do it again!"

 

# # # #