By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — Pine Brook School students have taken on the world.
Odyssey of the Mind team members from the Pine Brook School, Pease Road, recently returned from the competition held at Iowa State University, where they placed eighth out of 45 teams from across the nation and around the world.
Teams came from Bermuda, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, Scotland, Africa, the Bahamas, Croatia, Korea, Lithuania, Moldova, Singapore, Slovakia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Australia, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia and the Ukraine to compete along side teams from all across America.
"The [Pine Brook] team received eighth place, competing against 45 other teams in their Division II," said Margie Long, Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District coordinator for the Odyssey of the Mind program. "As district coordinator I am very proud of the successes [that] all of our Odyssey of the Mind teams had this year.
"It is a special honor that the Pine Brook team attended [the] world competition in Iowa. The students and their coach, Phyllis Katsikis, a third grade teacher at the Clark Mills School, represented our district proudly and I know they enjoyed the experience tremendously," she said.
The Pine Brook Odyssey of the Mind sixth grade team members are Alex Bigelisen, Joey Capuana, Kelly Diver, Anna Kibrick, Mihir Khokhani, Brian Matza and Nicole Tower.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international program founded by Dr. Sam Micklus more than 20 years ago. The program promotes creative thinking and problem solving by challenging teams of students to solve divergent problems, or those with more than one solution. By working together in teams, participants learn cooperation, the appreciation and understanding of others, and that a group is a more powerful thinking force than an individual, according to information provided about the program. Students also develop a sense of self-respect and respect for others through preparatory activities such as brainstorming and role playing.
The ultimate goal for teams is to present their problem solutions in official competitions, however, this is not a requirement of participation. The purpose of the Odyssey of the Mind program is to give students a unique learning experience that promises to be challenging and fun.
In an Odyssey of the Mind competition, teams are awarded scores in three areas: long-term problem solution, the style component of the long-term solution, and how well the students solve a spontaneous problem given to them on the day of competition, Long said.
The district coordinator explained the process.
"Students in grades three through eight try out to become a member of their school’s team in the fall," said Long. "There is one team in each of the K-3 schools and two teams (except for the Wemrock Brook School this year) for the 4-6 schools and the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School. Seven students are selected to become team members. Coaches meet with their teams on a regular basis, about one or two hours a week in the beginning of the year and then several hours a week for meetings when it gets closer to competition time."
Students are given information about the long-term problem they must solve. During the after-school meetings, team members worked on practicing for the spontaneous competition as well.
Students compete at a qualifying tournament against teams from other schools.
At the Odyssey of the Mind qualifying tournament held at Sayreville War Memorial High School, Middlesex County, on March 1, the Manalapan students performed their long-term problem solution and participated in the spontaneous competition, putting forth their best efforts, Long said.
"Ten teams representing students from all seven of our schools were among a total of 128 teams from the state of New Jersey," she said.
Any team that had a fifth-place finish or higher on March 1 went on to compete at the state tournament held April 5 at the Crossroads Middle School North in South Brunswick, Middlesex County.
"Seven of our 10 teams qualified for the next level of competition, the state competition," said Long. "The Pine Brook team, which had a first-place finish in the state competition on April 5, qualified to compete at the world tournament which was held May 28-31 in Ames, Iowa."
But the team members didn’t know what they were in for when the arrived at the Iowa State campus.
"What makes this accomplishment even more amazing is the fact that their props for their presentation were nearly destroyed in transport," Long said. "When the damaged props were first discovered, the team and its coach, Phyllis Katsikis, were not even sure if they could compete, as the props needed so many repairs.
"However, the team came together and decided to repair the props the next day as best as they could. The team set forth patching, re-creating, gathering new materials and adjusting the props for their afternoon presentation. Ms. Katsikis, along with chaperone Howie Gandelman (Lafayette Mills School team coach) and parents of team members provided support and guidance as the children feverishly attended to their work."
The Pine Brook students performed their presentation less than 24 hours after they discovered the damaged props.
At the awards ceremony, the team members learned of their high ranking.
"Everyone was pleasantly surprised with their placement," Long said. "Ms. Katsikis believes that the need for the students to repair the damaged props and go on with the show may have pushed the students to come together and try even harder. I believe that it is in times of tragedy when true courage and determination can be seen. Our Pine Brook team rose to the occasion and exemplified the true embodiment of the spirit and goal of the Odyssey of the Mind program."
Superintendent of Schools Maureen Lally offered her congratulations to the youngsters for their performance in Iowa.
"Wow, I can’t believe they did so well, considering the circumstances," Lally said. "Great job!"
\