T
his year’s Quaker
Valley Odyssey of
the Mind (OM)
team has certainly
made Pittsburgh proud.
The team, made up of
juniors Kaylyn Hicks,
Parker Redcross, Sam
Baycer, Emma Szuba
and Desi Durbin, took
second place in the 2016
Pennsylvania OM State
Finals—earning them a
spot at the OM World
Finals in May.
“This is a very creative and dedicated team,” says Linda Diamond,
who has been a volunteer coach for six years. “They used creativity
with technology to create an award-winning performance.” Diamond
began as an assistant coach when her daughter Kaylyn became
involved with OM in the third grade.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international problem solving
competition that teaches, promotes and encourages the life skill of
problem solving. There are several divisions: Division I for grade
school students, Division II for middle school students, Division III
for high school students and Division IV for college students.
The competition has two parts—a Long-Term Problem and a
Spontaneous Problem. For the Long-Term Problem portion, the team
may choose from five types of problems to find a “solution” within the
problem’s guidelines and cost limit. The team’s solution/performance
can’t be longer than eight minutes.
The Spontaneous Problem is given to the team on competition day
and is completed with either a verbal or a hands-on solution. Both
types of problems are judged, scored and combined for a final total.
The Quaker Valley team began working on this year’s Long-Term
Problem last summer and continued diligently until this year’s
regional competition in March. The theme
of the team’s Long-Term Problem is titled
“Something Fishy.” The problem required
the team to create a humorous performance,
including three separate devices that can pick
up a moving object from four, six and 10 feet,
respectively. The students created a hydraulic
claw that picked up wooden circles that were
specifically cut to wobble as they moved.
They also devised a pulley system that lifted
a Plexiglas box that sat on a programmed
rotating servomotor, in addition to a springloaded tube to project a Velcro “hook” to
capture a motorized cord moving across the
floor. The team put a modern spin on the idea
of fishing with a play on words—computer
“phishing.” The characters in the performance
“phished” for each other’s “information” without realizing they were
scamming one another.
At this year’s regional competition, the Quaker Valley OM team
received the Ranatra Fusca Award—the highest honor given for
creativity in the Odyssey of the Mind competition. This trophy had
not been awarded to a Quaker Valley High School team since 1997,
and the Western Pennsylvania OM regional tournament had not
given this award to a team completing a technical problem since
2006.
In addition to their second-place finish for the Long-Term
Problem, the team was awarded first place for their Spontaneous
Problem during this year’s
“Many of the team
state competition.
“Many of the team
members have been
members have been
with OM since the
involved with OM since involved
third grade and have always
dreamed of making it to the
the third grade and
World Competition,” says
have always dreamed of Diamond. “And this year
they did it!”
The OM World
making it to the World
Competition takes place at
Competition,” says
Iowa State University May
25-28. Competing in the
Diamond. “And this year event are 850 teams from
44 states and 22 countries.
they did it!”
“We’re all looking forward
to the opening ceremony where each state/country is announced
while taking their place in an arena—similar to the opening
ceremonies of an Olympic Games,” says Diamond. “The team is very
excited to meet teams from all over the world to see what inventive
solutions have brought them to the World Competition.”
For more information about the Quaker Valley Odyssey of the
Mind team, contact Linda Diamond at [email protected]. n
Sewickley | Summer 2016 | icmags.com 19