Odyssey of the Mind was this past Saturday and our inaugural team of five did amazing!  Everything they planned was executed perfectly. It went as well as we could have hoped for.  Yet, we lost big time, I mean BIG.  Our competition blew us out of the water.  Even more surprising, we still advanced to the State tournament.  Have I hooked you to keep reading?

In the Math department we make a big deal about celebrating mistakes and failure, because that’s when you really learn.  Our first attempt at this Odyssey competition was a perfect example of this.  Our first failure came when we had to weigh in our structure.  The structure had to weigh less than 15g and there was a 5 point penalty for every .1g over.  At weigh-in our structure weighed 15.6g.  That was a 30 point penalty.  Ouch.  Instead of just penalizing our team, the judges were amazing and started a dialogue about what the team might do to correct this error.  It was raining that day and the girls talked about how the damp air might have made the structure heavier.  From this they got the idea that they might be able to dry it out with a bathroom hand-dryer.  One of our team-members ran over to the nearest bathroom but unfortunately there was only a paper-towel dispenser.  The judges continued to press.  What else could we do to lower our weight?  While they didn’t feel they could remove any pieces without compromises the integrity of the structure, another member thought that they could perhaps shave off a layer of the pieces.  They spent 20 minutes in a corner shaving and got the structure down to 15.2g.  Much better!  I loved the learning that happened in this exchange. 

Then came the performance.  Their competitors went immediately before us.  I decided to watch it.  The girls decided to pass as they had to perform right after.  Let me tell you about this team we were up against:  they were clearly a well-oiled Odyssey success team.  Their set was sparkly and glittery and full of motorized parts and blinking lights.  While we built a low-resolution “lacrosse stick” to toss our structure, they built an air rocket!  Here’s a still shot from our performance.  I love it’s raw quality but in contrast to our competitor, it didn’t match up. 

But what was most devastating was when it came time for them to test the weight of the structure.  My jaw kept dropping as they put on more and more weight.  Their structure held 655 lbs!  I’m still amazed by this.  How much did our structure hold, you ask?  60 lbs.  Here is Olivia testing our structure for strength:

While they obviously killed us with the weight held, we actually beat them at the Spontaneous problem component of the competition.  We also tied them for style.  Our girls talked to the judges a lot at the end and understand better now how to build a stronger structure (apparently our main flaw was in the glue used.  And the girls were already buzzing with ideas for new designs that would be stronger as well).  Again, look at all of this learning from our failure! 

Obviously, they took first place and we took second (yes, there were only two teams in our division).  By default, we both advance to the state tournament.  Another team might decide to just pass given this initial defeat, but not our girls.  Even though we only have three weeks until the state tournament on March 30th, our girls are going for it.  They’re determined to build a stronger structure and beef up their performance to get more points and give that other team a run for their money.   When faced with failure, they’re choosing to learn from it instead of accepting defeat.  Look forward to another follow-up post after the State tournament!

Here’s a link to their performance.