Kids Take School Board On 'Odyssey'

How do you demonstrate how e-mail works in an eight-minute skit?

How do you do it when you're 8 or 9 years old, without help from adults?

Can you answer those questions? The Palmer Elementary School Odyssey of the Mind team can, as it demonstrated Tuesday to the Easton Area School Board.

The team—made up of Palmer third- and fourth-graders—came in fourth place recently at the statewide Odyssey of the Mind competition.

The competition challenges teams to demonstrate how to solve problem with a short skit.

This year, the team problem was "The E-mail Must Go Through," with the Palmer team using a Rube Goldberg-style contraption to demonstrate three different types of e-mail: one with artwork attached, one with a return-receipt request, and one that had to pass through a junk mail filter.

People have misconceptions about what the kids do, said Dr. Phyllis Finger, the teacher who oversees the program for the EASD.

“They think it’s just this little skit these kids make up," she told the board. "The key is the kids have to do the work themselves, and they have to make everything themselves.”