TJ Odyssey of the Mind Team
Donation protected
40 years ago, Dr. Sam Micklus, founded Olympics of the Mind, now Odyssey of the Mind (OotM). On May 22nd, the Rockaway Borough Thomas Jefferson Middle School Odyssey of the Mind Club will be traveling to the World Finals held at Iowa State University after claiming 1st place on April 14th at the New Jersey OotM State Finals for Division II Problem 1 Triathlon Travels. The team has invested over 200 hours of brainstorming, design, testing, construction and rehearsals to develop their long term solution; practiced over 100 spontaneous problems; spent 6 weekends dumpster diving and scanning the neighborhood on garbage days for trash and recycled materials they could use to build their solution. We are fundraising to off set the costs associated with registration, participation, and travel.
OotM (https://www.odysseyofthemind.com/ ) 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. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 35 other countries participate in the program.
OotM has its roots in the Industrial Design classes of Dr. Sam Micklus, OotM founder. As a professor at Rowan University in New Jersey (formerly Glassboro State College), Dr. Micklus challenged his students to create vehicles without wheels, mechanical pie throwers and flotation devices that would take them across a course on a lake. He evaluated them not on the success of their solutions, but on the ingenuity applied and the risk involved in trying something new and different. Students had fun.
“OotM is a competitive program, but it's nothing like your typical sporting event.” The competitive element encourages kids to be the best that they can be, but it's a friendly competition. Kids learn from and even cheer on their competitors. OotM is not a college bowl or a competition about knowledge. It's all about creativity, an often overlooked element in the growth and development of many students. Kids are rewarded more for how they apply their knowledge, skills and talents, and not for coming up with the right answer. In fact, in OotM problems, there isn't one right answer.
The Thomas Jefferson Middle School OotM Club was created five years ago by volunteer parents to provide an additional outlet for children who enjoy creative problem solving. The children do all the thinking, designing, and building on their own. This year the clubs dedication began in September 2017. They attribute their success to their creative use of recycled materials by using them in their building materials. Each week the teams pride and self-esteem increased with every problem solved. As they overcame many failures along the way, their resiliency to continually improve really showed. This has also helped their accountability and self-reliance.
The team is excited to travel to Iowa State University to see other teams from around the world and meet representatives from NASA.
OotM (https://www.odysseyofthemind.com/ ) 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. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 35 other countries participate in the program.
OotM has its roots in the Industrial Design classes of Dr. Sam Micklus, OotM founder. As a professor at Rowan University in New Jersey (formerly Glassboro State College), Dr. Micklus challenged his students to create vehicles without wheels, mechanical pie throwers and flotation devices that would take them across a course on a lake. He evaluated them not on the success of their solutions, but on the ingenuity applied and the risk involved in trying something new and different. Students had fun.
“OotM is a competitive program, but it's nothing like your typical sporting event.” The competitive element encourages kids to be the best that they can be, but it's a friendly competition. Kids learn from and even cheer on their competitors. OotM is not a college bowl or a competition about knowledge. It's all about creativity, an often overlooked element in the growth and development of many students. Kids are rewarded more for how they apply their knowledge, skills and talents, and not for coming up with the right answer. In fact, in OotM problems, there isn't one right answer.
The Thomas Jefferson Middle School OotM Club was created five years ago by volunteer parents to provide an additional outlet for children who enjoy creative problem solving. The children do all the thinking, designing, and building on their own. This year the clubs dedication began in September 2017. They attribute their success to their creative use of recycled materials by using them in their building materials. Each week the teams pride and self-esteem increased with every problem solved. As they overcame many failures along the way, their resiliency to continually improve really showed. This has also helped their accountability and self-reliance.
The team is excited to travel to Iowa State University to see other teams from around the world and meet representatives from NASA.
Organizer
Charles Malaniak
Organizer
Rockaway, NJ