Wednesday, June 11, 2008 • Volume 02; Issue 7 • www.lamorindaweekly.com Lamorinda Schools at the Odyssey of the Mind World Final By Sophie Braccini solving a Dinosaur Extinction When the district declined for lia- problem. bility reasons, parents approached That won them the privilege the Moraga Rotary Club that not of being selected with only two only became their community other American teams to participate sponsor in name, but also paid for in the Eurofest competition, from team registration fees, T-shirts, and the European branch of Odyssey of building and shipping costs for the mind; off they went to Hungary. teams advancing to the World Fi- Linda Wong, mother of com- nals. petitor Gwendolyn Tom, recounts: “There are many sports pro- “Our team met many other teams gram in this community, but not from Poland, Germany, Slovakia, many activities that promote cre- Moldova, Russia, Estonia, India, ativity and foster team work at the Belarus, Romania and Cameroon. same time,” says Rotarian Rich The “Eccentric” team members (left to right): 4th graders Luke Waldschmidt, One of the highlights of the festival Render. “I believe that one element Andy Tobin, Joe Yuke, Jack Lehman, Harrison Drake, Daniel Ginsburg (not pic- was the competition in the Mixed of the success of the JM teams is tured is Arden Rasmussen, who works "behind the scenes") Photo Janet Franklin Team problem, where three teams the fact that they come together and team of 4th graders from how during our brainstorming from different countries combined stay together year after year since ASleepy Hollow in Orinda and process kids built on each other’s to solve and present a new Odyssey the 4th grade,” he adds, “they are two teams from Joaquin Moraga ideas, coming out with group solu- problem. Our team was paired very cohesive, they own their ca- Intermediate made it to the World tions that were much better than with a team from New Delhi, India, pabilities, and they are very com- Final of the “Odyssey of the Mind” anything they would have found and a team from Minsk, Belarus. petitive.” competition in Maryland last week. alone.” You can imagine the communica- The Orinda School District In this incredible Olympic games The fictitious problem they tion challenges between these kids. will advertise the program again in of the mind, where 846 teams from chose addressed the oceans (the Add in an age difference of eight the fall. Lafayette didn’t have a 30 different countries competed, hydrosphere) that were changing years with one of the teams (5-6 team at the World Finals this year, the 8th graders from Moraga won color due to paint runoffs. The year olds from Belarus) and you but Lafayette schools have been 4th place, the 6th grade team took three ‘eccentrics’ were a flamboy- have a situation that requires pa- successfully represented in prior 11th and the Orinda team tied for ant Mayor who only spoke to a tience and perseverance. Much to years. The Moraga teams will 22nd place out of 44 (not bad for hand puppet, a mad scientist that their surprise and glee this trio of hold a public information meeting first-timers). was afraid of germs and his simple- multinational kids pulled off a first in the library in September and Odyssey of the Mind is a minded assistant who wore a huge place victory.” they encourage all interested stu- worldwide creative problem-solv- hat where he stored stuff, including The Moraga teams are not dents to attend. ing program that challenges teams his food. “Since we had started sponsored by the school district. of students from K-college. They only in December, we had to work compete in five categories of pre- very hard to be ready for the first defined problems and are divided level competition in March,” says into four age groups. Franklin, “we met from once a The Sleepy Hollow team, week to almost everyday on the last sponsored by the Orinda School leg.” She explains that the partici- district, chose “The Eccentric” sub- pants practiced solving sponta- ject: a problem that addressed an neous problems at each of their earth system (biosphere, atmos- encounters as well and they did phere…) that would be solved by a very well in this category. group of three eccentric characters The process and dynamic in an eight-minute play. was the same for the Moraga During the competition teams. The 8th grade team is a teams are given additional sponta- group of three girls and three boys neous problems that are to be that have been competing together solved without the coach. “One of since 4th grade. They are used to the things I enjoyed most,” says the pressure of competition and fin- mother and coach Janet Franklin, is ished first at the Regional level Moraga team in Hungary with siblings Photo Pin-Pin Wong all content copyright by Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA .