Off the Rails: Tech High freshman compete for Odyssey of the Mind
Local team is preparing for the international competition at Iowa State University in May
“I would say that Odyssey of the Mind is a international problem-solving competition, explained Samuel S. Lee, who formed a new team with five freshman at Tech High in Cotati this school year. “I’ve been coaching for three years now with different teams in different schools. The common factor is that I have three boys, and I would coach each of their teams,” said Lee, who is the area pharmacy director for Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa. He emphasized the problems that the students were given were open-ended.
In addition to Lee’s own son Samuel, the inaugural High Tech team for Odyssey of the Mind consists of Courtney Romero from Sebastopol, Adeline Rogers, Eleanor Uang, and Austin Purvis, all from Santa Rosa. I met with them recently to talk about their project and the international competition in May in Iowa when they will face off against 800 or so other teams. The team was excited about the work they’ve done this year and looking forward to their big trip.
At the beginning of the year, the team chose to tackle a problem named “Off the Rails,” which involved designing a functional train to meet specific criteria. As Courtney explained, “The train had the most science and engineering aspects of it...we wanted to challenge ourselves because it sounds interesting and fun.”
The students built a train from cardboard, homemade gears, and magnets. “Our requirement was to have it travel between two points, picking up three pieces of cargo along the way,” noted Adeline, another team member. The project required the team to employ significant creativity to build a propulsion system for the train, all within the constraints of fitting it into an 18-inch box. “ We also couldn’t use coding and we couldn’t use a remote control,” said Eleanor. Samuel added: “They want to see how outlandish we could go.”
To accompany their technical project, the team wrote and performed an engaging play, integrating their train as a character in their storyline, which featured a humorous conductor named Freddy Fred and a villainous Professor Barfy who was going back in time to steal art like the Mona Lisa and the Statue of Liberty. “Fred has to stop him from stealing all of these artifacts and selling them,” said Courtney. “He also wants to frame Fred for the thefts.”
In the competition, which takes place in a big gym, the team had built a background set with various props. Each of them played a character and memorized a prepared script. “We pretty much made a play,” Courtney said. “Fred, our protagonist, goes through all these different challenges that are brought to him by the antagonist, Professor Barfy.” They also have to solve problems spontaneously given to them by the judges.
“We have to think outside the box and stay together as a team,” said Eleanor. She explained that they were judged on creativity and time management. Teams can win medals for doing well in different categories, plus there’s medals for spontaneaity and creativity.
As they prepare for the final competition in May, the team sees themselves as winners already. “Even if we don’t win, it’s okay because it was still so fun,” said Adeline with enthusiasm. These experiences are helping them think about what their future might be, so I asked them about it.
“I’m not like entirely sure about what I want to do, which is good,” said Adeline. “Probably something science- or design-related.” Courtney said “ I personally either want to be like a physical therapist or an actor.”
“When I like first came to this school, I was like dead-set on STEM; engineering and math were all I did,” said Austin. “I never really did any art. I’m still not too great at art, but I definitely realized that it’s something that I really like doing and that I might pursue later in life.” Samuel said “Odyssey showed him how scientific and mathematical fields have this creative aspect.”
“When you go to big competitions, you meet new people and just get to talk to them and make friends,” said Eleanor. “It’s really nice and it gives you good people skills and good life skills. In the future, I want to go into a job that relies on social interaction.”
Support the Team
This inaugural team at Tech High has been self-funding this journey through various fundraising activities. They are asking for community support to help them on their way to Iowa. The students are raising funds on Zeffy through this link. They’ve raised $5,280 of their $15k goal.
Lee acknowledged that Odyssey of the Mind was once more widespread in schools in Sonoma County but he’d like to grow the number of teams at Tech High and in the area. “If we could get more kids to have experiences like these students have had, that would be really awesome,” he said.