A team of six fifth graders representing Madison Middle School earned second place at the 41st annual Connecticut state Odyssey of the Mind tournament and have been invited to advance to the World Finals at Iowa State University scheduled from May 24-28.
Contributed photoTRUMBULL — Ask Anasara Figueroa what she’s most looking forward to about heading to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Iowa later this spring, and her answer is simple: “Winning.”
Figueroa, 11, is one of six Trumbull students who will represent Madison Middle School at the competition from May 24 to 28 at Iowa State University after landing second place in their division at the state competition on March 19. Hamilton Avenue School in Greenwich won first place.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international competition that allows kids in kindergarten through high school to use creativity to solve problems that can range from building mechanical devices to writing and performing a modern interpretation of a piece of classical literature.
“There’s building, there’s engineering, there’s performance art — there’s a lot that goes into it,” said Henry Lang, the Trumbull team’s coach.
Odyssey of the Mind teams are asked to develop solutions to one of six long-term problems over several months. In addition to prepping for the long-yerm problem, teams have to prepare for a spontaneous problem, in which teams work together to solve a problem they have never seen before.
For its long-term problem, the Trumbull team chose the problem Escape vroOM, in which teams were asked to create an escape room and build a vehicle that will travel to areas within the room and complete tasks.
Each time the team completes tasks, a clue is revealed that the teams will use in the next area. The team also has to come up with characters to complete the tasks.
Lang didn’t want to reveal exactly how the Trumbull team solved the problem, because the team members are going to use it again at the world competition. But he said they went to a local escape room to bond and to learn how the rooms functioned.
Without saying too much, Lang said the judges seemed impressed with how the team tackled their problems.
“They did say they were very impressed with the characters they had and the jokes in some of the stories,” he said. “The performance was very polished.”
Lang’s daughter, Hope, said building was her favorite part of the competition.
“If one thing doesn’t work, you just have to experiment,” she said. “You can make just about anything.”
The victory was a big one for the Trumbull team, Henry Lang said, as they have been participating in Odyssey of the Mind for four years, but this is the first year the team actively competed.
Though the team is made up of fifth graders from varying Trumbull elementary schools, they represented Madison Middle in the competition due to a technicality, Lang said. He said they ended up sharing registration with another team, which was based out of Madison Middle School. When the other team backed out, he said, the fifth graders ended up representing the school on their own.
The team is raising money through a GoFundMe page to travel to the World Finals. Their goal is to raise $10,000. Anasara’s mother, Tara Figueroa, is organizing the fundraiser.
Like Hope, Anasara said she enjoyed working on some of the more mechanical aspects of the long term problem.
“I like getting chances too use my creativity,” she said. “I like the building.”