Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Odyssey of the Mind?

Does anyone know anything about this program? I've googled it, but everything I could find on it is a little vague. I know it's a problem solving competition, but does anyone know any more detail? I'm asking because my son was selected for his school's team - and I allowed him to do it, hoping it will be a bit of an extra challenge for him since school has been so boring lately. I offered to help out with practices and such if I'm needed, and will probably become a lot more familiar with it once practice starts. But I'm curious about other people's opinions of the program.

One of my kids did it for a few years, and had a great time and an excellent experience. As a sixth grader, she built a remote control robot that had to perform different functions (and she did not have any particular engineering bent, she just ended up doing it). The judging can be kind of arbitrary, and it is heartbreaking if/when they lose after the amount of time they put into it. (The robot entry was beaten by a team that rode a tricycle to perform the same function...). Also, it is a very time consuming activityt to do well. But I think the experience overall was very positive and fun. A good teamwork experience, too.

There was a thread on this recently that I posted on. DS6 is on a team this year and did it last year. It can be great if it is well organized for sure.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted..../true/Odyssey_of_the_Mind.html#Post89289

Check out links on their websites as to the problems they have to solve.

http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/materials/2011problems.php

Hope that gives you a little more info.

Thanks, everyone! It sounds like a blast, and something that they can be very proud of afterwards!

Hi, wondering about this now for ds10, he is interested in the building parts but when he found out there are some language arts problems, he became less interested (no clue as to how he thinks, still).
Anyway, is this pretty rigid 50-50 language arts - 'other' types of things like engineering/building problems, or is it heavier on the building of things? I can also inquire with our point of contact here, but figured I wouldn't get an answer in the next couple of days.
Thanks!