Southern Lehigh Cleans Up at 2012 Odyssey of the Mind Competition

by Heidi Schiavone and Jenny Thompson

This past Saturday while some were celebrating St. Patricks Day, hosted the Southeastern Pennsylvania Odyssey of the Mind Regional Competition for 122 teams of up to 7 students.   This year there were six Southern Lehigh teams competing; four of these teams received awards and one of them will continue on to the PA state competition on April 14th.

Mr. Grabusky's Division II [Southern Lehigh Intermediate School] team took First Place in “Ooh-Motional Vehicle” and will go on to the State Finals which will take place at Pocono Mountain East High School. Last year, this team went to the World competition in Maryland.

Three other teams took Third Place: Mrs. Thompson's Division II [Middle School] ; Mr. and Mrs. Grabusky's Division I [Intermediate School]; and Mrs. Schiavone's team Division II [Intermediate School].

What an awesome day we had at the Southeast PA Regional OM tournament held on Saturday, March 17th at Southern Lehigh High School! Everyone performed admirably. 

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program in which students in kindergarten through college come up with creative ways to solve problems ranging 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 United States and from about 25 other countries participate in the program.

The and fall into five general categories, which are mechanical/vehicle, technical performance, classics, structure and performance.Each year, NASA sponsors one of the long-term problems.   Southern Lehigh had teams competing in all but one of the optional problems.