• Innovation Academy has a strong Odyssey of the Mind program!

    Since 2018, we have had over 300 students participate in our OM program!  

    In the spring of 2022, three of our teams qualified for the World Finals in Iowa!  Twenty-one Innovation students and their families traveled to Iowa State University to compete with teams from all over the globe!

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    World Finals Iowa

      OM world finals 2022

    In 2023, three more teams qualified for the World Finals!  This year, 21 students and their families traveled to Lansing, Michigan to compete in the World finals.  One of our Innovation teams placed fifth in the WORLD!

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    O.M. is a world-wide creative problem solving program. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it promotes "outside of the box" thinking and creative problem solving for students.  O.M is comprised of teams. Each team has 5-7 members and 1-2 coaches. The team works most of the school year to find a creative solution to a problem, then they present their solution at a competition.  Students must learn to collaborate and work together to create their solution -- and do it all on their own! Students also learn to work together to solve spontaneous problems. This is another part of the competition and not only requires the team to have excellent team work and communication skills, but challenges the students to think on their feet. OM helps students develop creative problem skills that help them be successful in aspects of life.

     

    Odyssey of the Mind is a team-driven creative problem-solving competition.
    Team-driven: The team does everything themselves- makes props, costumes, writes scripts, etc. Team-driven also means students learn the fundamentals of being in a team- cooperation, collaboration, sharing, etc.
    Creative: Teams will create objects you would never think of - and that's great!
    Problem solving: Not what you would imagine. OotM problems are more like guidelines. Create an 8 minute skit with a serious character, a silly character, a song, a dance, and something that changes form. Part of "problem solving" is answering that, but the other part comes from dealing with problems that spring from that: "How do we make costumes?" "How do we cut wood?", etc.
    Competition: Teams will compete against others who worked on the same problem, and you'll be amazed at how different everybody's solutions are!

    THREE DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF ODYSSEY

    • Long-term problems
    • Style elements
    • Spontaneous problems

    DIFFERENT TEAM CLASSIFICATIONS IN ODYSSEY

    • Primary Teams: Kindergarten-2nd Grade
    • Division I Teams: 2nd-5th Grade
    • Division II Teams: 6th-8th Grade
    • Division III Teams: 9th-12th Grade
    • Division IV Teams: Collegiate Level

     

     

     

     

    Creative Problem Solving

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     If you would like more information please check out Arizona's Odyssey of the Mind website.

    http://www.azodyssey.org/

     

    AZ OM Vision Statement

    In order to promote critical thinking and creative problem solving skills for students from kindergarten through college, Arizona Odyssey of the Mind envisions growing our membership, strengthening team achievement, and increasing community involvement and awareness.

     

    If you are interested in participating or learning more about Innovation Academy's Odyssey of the Mind program please contact Ms. LaRussa at llarussa@amphi.com

     

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