By Andreanna Schultz

Building upon more than a decade of history at Tempe Prep, Odyssey of the Mind returns for another great year. This unique extracurricular activity has brought creative opportunities to students for 35 years.

In Odyssey of the Mind, groups of three to seven people, ranging from kindergarten to college age, solve a problem creatively in theatrical, classical, technical, structural, and vehicular categories as well as by solving spontaneous problems. Each category’s problem is designed to have multiple solutions, depending on the creativity of each team. Each spontaneous problem promotes fast, creative thinking when given a verbal or hands-on situation.

This year’s problems are entitled “Pet Project”, “The Email Must Go Through”, “ARTchitecture: The Musical”, “Tumble-wood”, and “It’s How You Look at It”, filling the five different categories.

Pet Project involves the construction of three vehicles to carry parts that, when assembled, become a pet that performs a trick. The Email Must Go Through depicts the process involved in an email, complete with a self-sustaining central server. ARTchitecture: The Musical requires a performance of an expedition in search of two lost architectural treasures. Tumble-wood, a structural problem, involves building a balsa wood structure that tumbles down a ramp, and then testing for how much weight it can hold. It’s How You Look at It requires a performance with two odd characters in two different environments.

New director Mrs. Borawski has high hopes the teams this year and is glad that several new teams have joined. The experience gained by participating in Odyssey “can be applied to many aspects of life including your personal and work life,” said Mrs. Borawski.
The deadline has passed for team membership, but for more information, visit the TPA and Odyssey of the Mind websites.