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Middle School Team Head To Odyssey World Finals

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: May 17, 2008

A group of seven students from River Ridge Middle School will close out their school year on a high note. They will travel to College Park, Md., to take part in an international competition.

Nathan Binder, Joe Catalano, Alexandria Curtwright, Cierra Hold, Danielle Spissak, Michelle Vanderhoof and Nicole Vanderhoof will compete in a battle of wits with students from around the world in the 29th Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, from May 31 to June 3.

Odyssey of the Mind was created in 1978 by C. Samuel Micklus, professor emeritus at Rowan University. The New Jersey school formerly was known as Glassboro State College.

Micklus wanted to create a way to emphasize an often-overlooked aspects of student growth and development, creative problem solving skills.

In Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey," the hero Odysseus repeatedly pulls himself out of mortal danger at the hands of more-powerful beings by being cleverer than his adversaries.

In Odyssey of the Mind, the emphasis isn't on raw intellect, as it is in question-and-answer-style "bowl" or "bee" competitions. Each year Odyssey of the Mind organizers come up with five possible competitive problems. The problems appeal to a wide range of interests; some are technical in nature, while others are artistic or performance-oriented.

Based on their collective tastes and talents, each team selects one problem to solve.

The River Ridge Middle School team chose one called "DinoStories." The challenge was to make a replica of a dinosaur that once existed, then create and present a fictional story about how the dinosaur became extinct.

The key word is "fictional." The contest isn't a test to see how well they can recite dinosaur extinction theories involving meteors crashing into the Yucatan peninsula.

Instead, they have to come up with an alternate explanation. Under the rules of the competition the goofier the theory is the better.

"It had to be funny," said Nathan Binder. "And there are technical parts to it, too."

Along with being funny, the presentation had to include the dinosaur, as well as an animal that is not a dinosaur. The dinosaur is portrayed by a team member.

They also had to have a replica of the dinosaur that looked like the one in the skit.

For both their costumes and the dinosaur replica, Nathan said, they scored extra points in earlier rounds of the competition for their creative use of recycled materials.

Their dinosaur, dubbed Ferdinand, is made from old water bottles, corks, plastic forks, cellophane and other odds and ends.

The team came up with an eight-minute tale in which dinosaurs go extinct because of a rivalry with a penguin population.

"We had penguins because everyone likes penguins," Nathan said.

In the River Ridge team's story, the penguins get tired of the dinosaurs picking on them all the time. So they concoct a plan to trick the dinosaurs into going up in a hot air balloon. The penguins, knowing these dinosaurs can't swim, then send the balloon aloft. The balloon gets caught in a storm over the Bermuda Triangle, and the rest is history - albeit fictional history.

Half the points in the Odyssey of the Mind contest are based on the skit. The other half comes from improvisational challenges at the tournament. The team has been working together on its skit and practicing its improvisational problem solving skills the entire school year, meeting twice a week under the supervision of teacher Helen Weirenga and Rita Vanderhoof, the mother of Michelle and her sister, Nicole Vanderhoof. Part of the challenge is to be creative as a group, for imaginations and egos to work harmoniously. It's also one of the greatest rewards, according to team member Danielle Spissak.

"If you have a whole team you have to hang out with, it's so much fun," she said.

The team's latest test of creativity is coming up with the money for travel and lodging to Maryland. The Pasco School District has put up some of the money, and the team has been coming up with a myriad of fundraisers.

Anyone who would like toWould-be contributors can send checks payable to "RRMS OM Team" to: River Ridge Middle School, 11646 Town Center Road, New Port Richey, FL 34654; Attn: Helen Weirenga.

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