Our Bay Haven School of Basics Plus Rocking World Detour team truly shone at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals Competition, a global event held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. They placed an impressive third out of 56 teams, representing 46 states and ten countries in division one/Elementary. This is a remarkable achievement, considering they were up against more than 700 teams from around the world.
The Rocking World Detour Problem was sponsored by Arm and Hammer, and the team had to incorporate it into the performance. The criteria for this problem included the team having to create a rock band that was unexpectedly transported to an unexpected location, write a team-created original song and lyrics, and sing it while playing a creative team-created instrument. They also got judged on creative and original hair and make-up and had to use music to transport them back on tour. Bay Haven had a Rock, Paper, Scissor band that included Glue and Sand, playing a rock version of "Jingle Bells" and getting transported into an hourglass after Sand wished upon a falling star that the band would return together. The hourglass was inside a video game where they had to find a musical note to transport them back on tour. The team became video game characters using puppets that looked like them and sang the team's original song, "Stuck in an Hourglass." The team also had to participate in a spontaneous problem they had to solve on the spot using quick thinking and creativity. These problems can help develop teamwork and the ability to deal with unexpected situations, which must be solved with the judges. The team scored 4 points below the highest team in this category. OM teaches additional skills such as developing creativity, problem-solving, and applying lessons to real-world experiences. The program also emphasizes teamwork, budgeting, time management, and public speaking.
Bay Haven represented all of Florida at the worldwide competition and was the #1 team in the US. Overall, China placed first, Poland second, Bay Haven third, North Carolina fourth, and Korea fifth. The Bay Haven team of five 4th graders and one 5th grader "rocked" the OM World Finals as one of eight teams from Florida that placed.
