York Town News
Six York teams taking part in creative "Odyssey"
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - This weekend, while their friends and classmates are enjoying a bit of time off from school, six teams of local students will be taking a trip north to Colby College in Waterville to be part of the Maine Odyssey of the Mind Competition.Odyssey of the Mind - or OM, as it is commonly known - has long been a favorite event for students in York, with teams participating from multiple schools and in almost every problem category and division.
This year marks the first time participating as Horizons coordinator for local educator Michele Freitag, who said she is thrilled to see so many students participating in the event.
Freitag became the elementary-level Horizons coordinator this past summer, after longtime coordinator Christie Hazen resigned to accept a new post in Connecticut.
This year, there are four teams from Coastal Ridge as well as one team each from York Middle School and Village Elementary School ready to attend the state competition.
Problems range from creating weight-bearing structures out of thin strips of wood to traveling the globe by way of play written and performed entirely by the students.
York has a non-competitive primary team from Village at work on the "Time Capsule," problem, as well as Division I elementary school teams for problems entitled "The Large and Small of It," "Out of the Box Balsa" and "I'm Only Thinking of You." There are both a Division I team and a Division II team performing in the "Around the World in Eight Minutes" category.
Division I teams compete against other elementary school-aged students from across Maine, while Division II is primarily middle school-aged students.
And while York has traditionally had strong showings in terms of its placement in past Odyssey of the Mind competitions, Freitag stressed that the focus is not on how well teams score when they head to the Odyssey of the Mind State Tournament on Saturday, March 24.
Winning, she said, is not what OM is all about.
Working together for months on end - with some teams forming as far back as September or October of this past year - the program is one that helps children work together, persevere, problem-solve and become independent, Freitag said.
"These are all great life-lessons," she explained. "My hope for the students is that they're proud of themselves for working together to solve problems."
She said the enthusiasm of the teams and their ability to come together and see things through - even when there are challenges - has been wonderful to witness.
"What we need in this world are problem-solvers," Freitag said, adding the creativity of children in finding solutions should never be underestimated.
See next week's edition of The Independent for a special feature on York's OM teams.
