Tampa Bay Schools Head to World Competition

After many hours of hard work, months of planning, and participating in a regional and state competition, five Tampa Bay area schools (OM’s Buccaneer Bay Region) will be competing in the Odyssey of the Mind World Competition to be held at Michigan State University in just a couple months.

Teams involved in Odyssey of the Mind have spent months developing solutions for a variety of "problems," but have only 8 minutes to present their solutions. Volunteer judges will score them on innovation, originality, and meeting specific requirements. Teams go up against others in the same age group in one of the available problems.

The five Tampa Bay area schools who are now planning for the world competition started their journey in late 2006. It was at that time they picked the problem they would perform in the Buccaneer Bay regional Odyssey of the Mind (OM) competition which was held at the University of South Florida in March of 2007.

Based on their performance in the regional OM competition, the exceptional teams were then awarded the honor of competing in the state competition which was held at the University of Central Florida April 14, 2007. The five teams that are now going to the world competition have surpassed multiple teams in Tampa Bay and now the entire state of Florida.

The teams that will now be going off to the Odyssey of the Mind World Competition are Pinellas County’s Northside Christian School in Division I, problem “Large & Small”, Hillsborough County’s Lockhart Elementary School in Division I, problem “Around the World”, Palm Harbor Middle School in Division II, problem “Around the World”, Freedom High School in Division III, problem “Around the World”, and Lockhart Elementary School in Division I, problem “I’m Only Thinking of You”.

Teams that compete in the world competition will have to raise nearly eight thousand dollars to cover travel expenses for the team and coaches.

For more information contact Tampa Bay’s regional director Laurie Filardo at 813-681-6697 or at lfilardo@tampabay.rr.com. You can visit the Tampa Bay Region’s web site at http://www.bucbay.com/.