Monday, February 2, 2009

Olympics of the Mind - Smarty Pants - 1985

(Flashback to high school... Reprinted here with attribution but without permission. From this source.)

Marcellus NY Weekly Observer 1985
Press-Observer, April 24, 1985 - Page 24
Two O.M. Teams Bring Home Trophies


Two school buses, a station wagon and a van slipped quietly back into Skaneateles late Saturday, April 20. This caravan was returning from the New York State finals of the Olympics of the Mind competition at SUNY-Buftalo.

Skaneateles pupils who participated in the Buffalo event were all winners of the regional competition March 16 in Auburn. The contests were titled "Big Top," "Ecology Dozer,"
"Compound Fracture," "Music Maestro" and "High Tech-Smarty Pants." Competition is in three divisions according to the grade level of the student.

After checking in at the guest dorms on the Buffalo campus, Friday, April 19,the 60 students and adult coaches were treated to a dinner at Niagara Falls, Canada. Mist and dense fog unfortunately totally obscured their view of the Falls.

Saturday morning the Skaneateles teams began competing against the other regional winners. The first part of the event is called "long term." This allows the competitors to show or use devices and skits to earn points toward victory. The second part of the event is called "spontaneous," where the team members use only brainpower to earn additional points.

The Division Three Skaneateles team for "High Tech-Smarty Pants" won first place for their robot and its skit dealing with an explosion in the chemistry laboratory. Coached by Georgia Peach, with Tammy Dudden assisting, the team of Sharon Graham, Eric Hadley, Maggie Kelly, David Leonard, Aaron Naas, and John Spear earned the privelege of competing in the 1985 World O.M. Finals at the University of Maryland on June 6 and 7.

A third place trophy went to the Divison Two Skaneateles team for "Ecology Dozer." This team of sixth graders, Jim Darrow, Michael Hancock, Jason Highsmith, Jilian Richards, Dietrich Rapalaski and Marcus Frick, built a vehicle powered by a small hydraulic jack. The car and driver had to move four trees from a starting point and place them into buckets along a 25 foot course. Beth and Jorge Batlle coached this team.

This team also won an award for exceptional creativity for the "long term" part of their event. Carol Anne Smith, coordinator for the elementary teams remarked that this was the first time in her memory that this award was presented for the "long term" portion of the event.

Jimmy Allred competing in Division One's "Compound Fracture" event won an award for special achievement in the "spontaneous" part of his team's event.

The Olympics of the Mind competition encourages the development of individual creative skills, team work, diligence and hard work. The predominant spirit of O.M. competitions is fun and humor, and finding new and different ways of doing things.

No comments: