SOUTH BERWICK—
Berwick Academy Middle School students took home the top prize at the 32nd Odyssey of the Mind World Finals Competition, besting 38 other teams in their age division, including squads from China, India, and Mexico.
The students and their faculty and parent coaches drove ten hours to the University of Maryland during the Memorial Day weekend to present their “Extreme Mousemobile” for competition. They joined 27 other Maine teams and 883 teams in total from all over the world.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level.
The Berwick students designed and built vehicles that use mousetraps as their only source of energy. For the project, the team created a skit about saving the earth from an oil company. Their mousemobiles were made into various animals that performed several tasks for different point values such as landing in a taped off square, moving trash into a recycling container, spinning a wheel, raising a flag, planting a tree, and delivering a package. The cars were required to “travel an obstacle course and complete a variety of tasks while giving a performance” that tied together the obstacles and the tasks.
In addition to the creative problem solving, there is a requirement that all teams participate in “spontaneous” problem solving, which can be totally verbal. Students who participated on the “Extreme Mousemobile” team were Jess Hebert ’16 of South Berwick, ME, Zoe Albion ’16 of Dover, NH, Emily Borkowski ’15 of Wells, ME, Hirsh Agarwal ’15 of Exeter, NH, and Abby Donoghue ’15 of Kittery Point, ME.
Founded in 1791, Berwick Academy is an independent, coeducational country day school located in South Berwick, Maine.
Photo caption: From left to right: Fern Brown (Maine coordinator for Odyssey of the Mind), Emily Borkowski of Wells, Abby Donoghue of Kittery Point, Jessica Hebert of South Berwick, Jason Wheeler (WCSH, Ch. 6 and a judge for OM), Zoe Albion of Dover, NH, and Hirsh Agarwal of Exeter, NH. (Courtesy photo)
Berwick Academy Middle School students took home the top prize at the 32nd Odyssey of the Mind World Finals Competition, besting 38 other teams in their age division, including squads from China, India, and Mexico.
The students and their faculty and parent coaches drove ten hours to the University of Maryland during the Memorial Day weekend to present their “Extreme Mousemobile” for competition. They joined 27 other Maine teams and 883 teams in total from all over the world.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and world level.
The Berwick students designed and built vehicles that use mousetraps as their only source of energy. For the project, the team created a skit about saving the earth from an oil company. Their mousemobiles were made into various animals that performed several tasks for different point values such as landing in a taped off square, moving trash into a recycling container, spinning a wheel, raising a flag, planting a tree, and delivering a package. The cars were required to “travel an obstacle course and complete a variety of tasks while giving a performance” that tied together the obstacles and the tasks.
In addition to the creative problem solving, there is a requirement that all teams participate in “spontaneous” problem solving, which can be totally verbal. Students who participated on the “Extreme Mousemobile” team were Jess Hebert ’16 of South Berwick, ME, Zoe Albion ’16 of Dover, NH, Emily Borkowski ’15 of Wells, ME, Hirsh Agarwal ’15 of Exeter, NH, and Abby Donoghue ’15 of Kittery Point, ME.
Founded in 1791, Berwick Academy is an independent, coeducational country day school located in South Berwick, Maine.
Photo caption: From left to right: Fern Brown (Maine coordinator for Odyssey of the Mind), Emily Borkowski of Wells, Abby Donoghue of Kittery Point, Jessica Hebert of South Berwick, Jason Wheeler (WCSH, Ch. 6 and a judge for OM), Zoe Albion of Dover, NH, and Hirsh Agarwal of Exeter, NH. (Courtesy photo)
