VIDEO: Sea Park Elementary Captures First Place At Odyssey of the Mind World Finals

By  //  June 4, 2017

825 Teams from U.s., World Competed

ABOVE VIDEO: The 38th Odyssey of the Mind World Finals took place May 24-27 at Michigan State University.

BREVARD COUNTY • SATELLITE BEACH, FLORIDA – Sea Park Elementary, located in Satellite Beach, won first place at the 38th Odyssey of the Mind World Finals, which took place May 24-27 at Michigan State University.

Odyssey of the Mind is the world’s largest creative problem-solving educational competition for students.

The competition is broken into divisions based on grade level and by choice of five long term problems.

Sea Park Elementary competed in Division 1 for grades 3-5 and choose Problem III: The Classics, It’s Time Omer.

Teams solve problems in two areas, Spontaneous and Long Term.

In Spontaneous, teams solve a problem on the spot, showcasing their abilities to think on their feet and out of the box. For the Long Term, teams create an original eight-minute performance judged on style, creativity, and teamwork.

The team dedicated hundreds of after-school and weekend hours to perfect their script and background sets for the Long Term Problem and practice for Spontaneous.

The team chose the Long Term problem “It’s time Omer,” where the future and the past collide with time travelers inspiring great works of art in the past and the future. Four scenes were created from repurposed materials such as playing cards, chopsticks, and a paper Mache tea pot.

The Sea Park Elementary Team members are Lauren Williams, Kate Bloom, Lana Stout, Sophie Bailey, Sarah Miller, Eva Bradley and Victoria McDine. The team was coached by Sea Park teacher/parent Catherine Bloom and parents Ken and Sophie Williams.

The China scene was made entirely from items found in a Chinese restaurant.  The Italy scene included a spaghetti wheat field and a pond of blue water made from dyed fusilli pasta.

The costumes were just as creative as their sets, which featured a raccoon made entirely from strips of Wal-Mart bags.

Hundreds of hours were spent replicating the Mona Lisa and a painting from the artist Chen Hongshou. One of the highlights was the time machine mimicking a traditional gumball machine with a gumball dispensed to denote year of time travel.

Sea Park’s road to the finals began when they won first place in Division 1 at the Space Coast Regional Tournament back on March 4th and at the Florida State Tournament in early April.

In both tournaments the team captured the Ranatra Fusca Award, the highest honor for creativity.

Sea Park’s first place finish is even more impressive when you consider they were one of 825 teams from around the United States and world to advance to the World Finals at Michigan State University.

Teams from countries such as China, Poland, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, and Indonesia all competed.

The Sea Park Elementary Team members are Lauren Williams, Kate Bloom, Lana Stout, Sophie Bailey, Sarah Miller, Eva Bradley and Victoria McDine. The team was coached by Sea Park teacher/parent Catherine Bloom and parents Ken and Sophie Williams.

ABOVE VIDEO: Robert Matthew Van Winkle, or as we know him, “Vanilla Ice,” with Sea Park student Kate Bloom, wishes the team good luck and throws his support behind a May 16 VIP Reception which helped support the team and their trip to the World Finals. 

In addition to working tirelessly on the sets and preparation, the team raised over $13,000 to fund travel to East Lansing, Michigan.

The Sea Park team was supported by many businesses and organizations that include Mitchell Law P.A., Charlie’s Auto and Truck Repair, and Schumacher Orthodontics. Kelly Ford, the Ford Dealership in Melbourne, sponsored a VIP Reception attended by the Brevard County School Superintendent Dr. Blackburn, School Board Representative Tina Descovich, representatives from the Satellite Beach Mayor’s office, community leaders, and Sea Park teachers, administrators and parents.

Other fundraisers included a car wash, a sponsorship t-shirt, and sale of Grimaldi chocolates.

The support from the community was truly phenomenal.

The team competed against 825 teams from around the world including China, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Europe and the U.S.
Sea Park Elementary competed in Division 1 for grades 3-5 and choose Problem III: The Classics, It’s Time Omer.

Millions of kids around the world worked hard all year perfecting their solutions to Odyssey of the Mind problems and competing within their regions, states and countries.

Only a few advance to World Finals — representing the best of the best creative young minds. Congratulations to students like these at Sea Park for they will be the innovators and leaders of tomorrow.

VIDEO: Sea Park Elementary Wins State Odyssey of the Mind Title, Now Headed To World FinalsRelated Story:
VIDEO: Sea Park Elementary Wins State Odyssey of the Mind Title, Now Headed To World Finals

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