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Halley Students Win Odyssey of the Mind Competition

Advance to the state contest on April 16

Last month William Halley Elementary won first place in the Full Circle IB Division at the Region 8 Odyssey of the Mind (OM) competition and are now advancing to the state finals, which will be held at T.C. Williams High School on April 16. More than 60 elementary, middle and high schools from Northern Virginia participated in the competition. This was Halley Elementary’s second time taking part in the Odyssey of the Mind Competition.

“I thought the kids had a really good chance of placing in the top three - but judging is always subjective since there is never one right answer in OM,” said Halley’s OM coach, Suhana Rei. “Most of my team had been together for two years - so they had one year of experience under their belt. Their script was really well conceived and well written so I did think they had a strong chance.”  

Halley Elementary’s OM team is comprised of John Erwin, Kaitlin Khorashadi, Megan Khorashadi, Simran Rai, Valmik Rai, Lauren Scott and Natalie Sullivan. A maximum of five students competed in the spontaneous round, and all seven were able to compete in the long-term problem.

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Out of the five long-term problems, Halley chose the NASA sponsored question called Full Circle. The team has all year to work on the long-term problem.

“They had to create, write and perform a skit where they took something that would change appearance three times and then revert back to it's original form,” said Rei. “The parameters of the problem called for a humorous performance with a serious character, silly character, songs, dance and a surprise ending,” said Rei. 

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The second problem is the spontaneous question, which is not revealed until the day of competition. The spontaneous question could be anything from “creatively answering a verbal question to building a tower made of marshmallows and toothpicks and getting points for each inch of the tower. Creativity is the key to high points!” said Rei.

“The kids probably have the hardest time during the brainstorming part when they are trying to come up with their concept,” said Rei. “They all get excited and feelings get hurt when the majority does not go with an idea that someone came up with. Ultimately, I believe that this process also makes them a stronger individual - they learn to really fight for their ideas and use their persuasion skills or realize that they need to go with what is best for the team even if it wasn't their idea.”

At the Virginia state competition next weekend, the Halley team will perform the same long-term problem as they did in the Regional competition. The spontaneous question will be a new and different question.

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