Manhattan Beach Teams Shine at Odyssey of the Mind Competition
Jun 07, 2022 08:38AM ● By Jeanne Fratello
Pacific 4th-grade, MBMS, and Mira Costa Odyssey of the Mind Teams: Back Row: Zachary Green, Ty Ahrens, Andrew Fan, Luke Green, Brian Chiu, Brian Fan (MBMS and Mira Costa Coach) Middle Row: Michelle Lautanen (Pacific's Coach), Audrey Treger, Sierra Wolbert, Abi Seo, Ashlyn Green, Ella Kim Front Row: Gabe Segil, Campbell Park, Zayaan Mehrotra, Lara Geida, Noah Segil, Charlotte Fan Not pictured: Vivienne Schneider
Manhattan Beach teams in elementary, middle, and high school age groups all took top awards at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals held in Ames, Iowa last week.
At the international event, Pacific Elementary's team
placed first in their problem division, Manhattan Beach Middle School's team placed third in their problem
division, and Mira Costa High School placed first in their problem division.
Manhattan Beach tied for
first among all cities for placements in the three divisions, providing three of
Southern California's five podium finishes. (The other
city with three placements was Gdansk, Poland.)
The Pacific Elementary and Mira Costa teams celebrated unprcedented back-to-back victories after winning first place in their divisions last year.
"It's
exceedingly rare for teams to place two years in a row," noted Lindsay Geida, parent of three of the children involved in the competition.
Odyssey of the Mind is a combination of theater
and problem solving with a creative twist. Through the writing of
original scripts, the creation of costumes, props, scenery, and
technical elements, teams of students work together to produce unique solutions to creative problems. Students develop skills in script writing, costume creation, music, dance,
visual arts, props and scenery construction, engineering, problem
solving, leadership, critical thinking, and more.
The World Finals were held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa from
May 25 through May 28, comprising 683 teams and 10,000 attendees. The
event was the first to return to the traditional tournament format after
two
years of COVID.
Prior
to competing in the World Finals in Iowa, these three teams had
competed at the regional tournament in March, and the state tournament
in April. The
teams had been practicing together since September.
Aside from the main competition, a
team of four 6th graders from Chadwick participated in Odyssey Angels, another program of the larger Odyssey organization that challenges kids to "be a hero in your community" by taking on a project that benefits others.
That team, which took on a project with seniors from Manhattan Beach Senior Villas, was chosen as the winner of the 2022 Odyssey Angels Project.
First Place for Pacific Elementary 4th Grade Team
Pacific Elementary's 4th-grade team competed in a "Performance" challenge. They created an eight-minute
skit about a candy-loving toddler who finds herself in a "Candy Circus"
and who has to brave frightening circus acts (such as a bed of prickly
pixie sticks descending upon her crib) to discover that to get a good
night’s sleep, she needs to lay off the candy.
Pacific 4th grade Odyssey of the Mind Team (left to right): Gabe
Segil, Lara Geida, Campbell Park, Vivienne Schneider, Noah Segil, Zayaan
Mehrotra. (Coached by Michelle Lautanen.)
The
spontaneous problem the team was tasked with involved coming up with
responses (within an 8-minute time period) to several photographs of
individuals with odd “hair”—for example, one woman wore a rainbow on her
head and another a giraffe. The team's responses included belting out
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and "I didn't want to leave the zoo, so I
camouflaged myself."
The team, coached by Pacific 2nd-grade teacher Michelle Lautanen, placed first among 59 teams in their problem division.
MBMS Team Earns 3rd Place for Sturdy Structure
The MBMS team competed in a challenge called "Matryoshka Structure." The
team designed a structure using only 15 grams of balsa wood and glue (the
equivalent weight of 3 nickels) to hold as much weight as possible.
Additionally, the 8" structure was designed to hold 3 additional nested
structures, which were removed one-by-one during their performance to
reveal a tiny character.
(MBMS Odyssey of the Mind Team (left to right): Audrey Treger, Sierra Wolbert,
Zachary Green, Ty Ahrens, Charlotte Fan, Coach Brian Fan)Their
performance included a steampunk-themed curio shop with a variety of
interesting customers. The team experimented with different painting
styles and material crafts to produce their backdrops and set pieces.
Mira Costa Team Repeats First-Place Finish
The Mira Costa team faced the same "Matryoshka Structure" as the middle school team.
They also broke their previous record by holding 1225 pounds with their structure,
securing the top weight amongst all Problem 4 teams at Odyssey World
Finals.
Mira Costa High School Odyssey of the Mind Team (left to right): Coach Brian Fan, Ella Kim, Ashlyn Green, Abi Seo, Brian Chiu, Andrew Fan, Luke Green; pictured with Odyssey Founder Dr. C. Samuel Micklus in the red jacket.
Their
performance theme was based on the classic story of Peter Pan, but with a twist. The team learned fencing to choreograph a sword fight
and also integrated shadow puppets into their performance.
They placed first overall in their problem division comprised of 32 teams.
Chadwick's Odyssey Angels Team
Chadwick's
6th-grade Odyssey Angels team knew each other well, having competed as an Odyssey team
coached by Michelle Lautanen when they were in 3rd through 5th grades.
(Chadwick 6th-grade Odyssey of the Mind Angels Team (left to right):
Cameron Geida, Reagan Ertman, Devin Manasse and Cary Geida, pictured
with Mary Jane Miraglio, a resident of the Manhattan Beach Senior Villas
and the winner of the Angels' trivia game.)
The team wanted to
bring members of the senior population back together after being apart
during the pandemic for so long. So
they decided to form an "Odyssey Angels" team and work with the Manhattan
Beach Senior Villas.
For the project, they first
interviewed the senior residents to get to know them and to gather the stories
of their lives. From the interviews, they wrote biographies for each
person, and also made a book to leave in the community room.
Next,
the team organized a trivia night party in which the residents played a trivia game of historical fun facts and questions about
their friends and neighbors. (Questions included: Who drove at age 8? Whose first job was to
work at a handkerchief company? Who bought their driver's license in a
gas station for 25 cents?)
