Editor’s note: Tempe Prep’s junior high Odyssey of the Mind team took 6th place out of 13 on March 14. The high school team took 2nd place in structure and 3rd in classics and will be competing in both problems in two weeks at state in Tucson.
By Clara Moffitt
TPA’s one middle school OM team is, “The Silent Ninjas of the Night.” In OM, you choose one problem out of five. These are long term problems that include problems that are technical and theatrical. The Silent Ninjas did a theatrical problem. “Our problem is to create a silent movie with a trailer in the beginning and there is a hero that defeats the villain after the villain commits three acts of silly villainy,” explains Kylie Klassen, a member of OM.
The Silent Ninjas were confident that they would receive a great score. Their many weeks of preparing hopefully had a positive effect on the outcome of the competition against the other teams. Another team member, Sophie Muniz, said before the competition, “I think we will do good and get a good score for creativity because we have a lot of colorful things and we use our imaginations.”
It’s not only a matter of quality that wins the points, it’s also a matter of teamwork. Kylie states, “The team has been working together well. They have been really good incorporating everybody’s ideas and working together as a team.”
Kelsey Bush comments, “I feel like my team is being cooperative but it’s very hard to gather ideas without arguing due to the fact that there are so many different ideas.”
Our coach agrees with Kelsey. “Learning to work together in a group is one of the biggest challenges.”