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A trip to the University of Maryland; for an international competition
Topic Started: May 31 2011, 08:40 AM (502 Views)
RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
My 12-year-old is involved in Odyssey of the Mind, an academic problem-solving competition.

A picture of his team (in costume, caveman theme) is here (quality is poor b/c it's a picture of a picture on my iPhone):

Posted Image

His team made advanced to the Worlds-level competition this year, which was held over four days at the University of Maryland. A photo of the awards ceremony is here:

Posted Image

A neat thing about my son's team is that it has a mix of genders and nationalities and they get along really well. They are bright, funny kids.

Anyway, the one girl in the team is Chinese-American. Her parents moved here for education and to work. They speak fluent Chinese and are strong in English as well.

At the OM competition, American teams can be paired up with an international team. Our team was paired up with a team from China.

It was so incredible to see this group of Chinese kids show up on campus and come up to our group of kids and talk in broken English, and then have the parents from our team serve as translators. The teams did activities together and cheered each other on during the competition.

Here is my son with some of the Chinese team:
Posted Image

The girl on his right is the Chinese-American kid on his team. The girl in the green is from China and I think she was checking out my son. :hat:

Anyway, it was a great weekend and neat to see kids from around the world interacting and competing.

My son's team came in 6th out of about 60 teams; so did the Chinese team (in a different problem). Their ways of solving the problems were very different but impressive in their own way.
Edited by RosemaryTwo, May 31 2011, 08:43 AM.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Mark
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HOLY CARP!!!
:thumb:
___.___
(_]===*
o 0
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
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RosemaryTwo
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We gave them Terrible Towels.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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blondie
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you've a smart kid R2.
you must be so proud.
it's a good opportunity for him.
it builds confidence & self-esteem.
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brenda
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..............
R2, that is so impressive!! Be very proud of your boys. They are wonderful.

I agree that the girl was checking out your son. :)
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
Luke's joining Odyssey at his school next year. A friend of mine is the "coach".

Cool beans, and congrats to #12!
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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RosemaryTwo
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LD, please keep me posted on how your son likes his OM experience.

We've done it for about five years now. I serve on the local board. Our district has a successful program. Our high school team came in first place. They always wow the audience.

We will likely take a year off. My son is feeling over-scheduled. His OM team starts work in the fall and close to competitions they will have practice sessions that last four to eight hours, 2-5 days a week. One girl on the team is moving away, so it's a bittersweet year for them.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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RosemaryTwo
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brenda
May 31 2011, 09:34 AM
R2, that is so impressive!! Be very proud of your boys. They are wonderful.

I agree that the girl was checking out your son. :)
My son had no idea, until I showed him the picture.

The Chinese-American teammate had a crush on him last year. So we're teasing him that he gets the Asian vote.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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The 89th Key
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w00t! Congrats!
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Congrats, Boy_R2!!! We never went past state in Destination Imagination, which spun off from OM. I was on the board too, and coached a couple of years. They are fantastic programs that I still support.

Which challeng did they pick?
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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RosemaryTwo
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They did a technical problem -- this year a Rube Goldberg.

They won the Ranatra Fusca award at the state level for exceptional creativity. It was hugely unexpected and our kids freaked out.

Their play was wordless and involved cavemen needing a back scratcher. Long story short, they communicated this to the audience through cave drawings and then their Rube ended in a claw that swung back and forth like a giant claw. They leaned up against it and, viola, a back-scratcher. It never failed to get a huge response from the audience.

"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Awesome. It is SO much fun to watch teh presentations, but very hard as a coach to stay within the rules.

DI was one of the things that set Lauren on her path to the stage. She was in the high school musical that year, 4th grade, as Amaryllis in The Music Man, and for DI they did the theater challenge where she was the front person and did an Australian Accent. She won the DI Renaissance Award that year for acting and stage presence and they went to state.


The next year they went to state as well. Their program that year featured Food Court Wars between Cheese Corner and Haggis Hut, mixed with the Civil War as a side trip.

Good times.
Edited by Mikhailoh, May 31 2011, 11:50 AM.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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RosemaryTwo
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It's exhausting but so much fun. And formative for those kids.

NASA sponsored part of the program and did a presentation. A few parents also took the team into DC to see the Newseum for the day. They are all intellectually curious kids, which I love.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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RosemaryTwo
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Posted Image

Here they are, freaking out at states when they learned they won the prize for exceptional creativity.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Isn't it great to have a more intellectual/creative competition? So many of teh accolades are reserved for sports.

Speking of which, I have to get showered and get to the Academic Awards presentation tonight. Kid's getting honors.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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George K
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Finally
Congratulations! looks wonderful.
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RosemaryTwo
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Mikhailoh
May 31 2011, 12:34 PM
Isn't it great to have a more intellectual/creative competition? So many of teh accolades are reserved for sports.

Speking of which, I have to get showered and get to the Academic Awards presentation tonight. Kid's getting honors.
Esp. neat for my kids, given their genetic pool.

"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Luke's Dad
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The Goldberg machine our school's team did was a combination tv remote control/dog feeder. They did it as an infomercial.
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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Luke's Dad
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Emperor Pengin
I took a look at the official score page, your son's team really did great! It's neat to see them beating out teams from all around the world!
The problem with having an open mind is that people keep trying to put things in it.
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
That's awesome, R2! Sounds like a great experience. :smile:
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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RosemaryTwo
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Thanks, LD.

They put in enormous time and follow the rules to a T, so it's a good lesson long hours yielding results.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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Rainman
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Congratulations RosemaryTwo, as well as Mik and others involved with this or similar competitions!

I have a question.

Much has been made regarding the high test scores of students in China, India, etc., vs. the low test scores of the U.S. in TIMS, PISA, and others. (I would have added Canada along with the U.S., but I believe they beat us in test scores as well)

Do you notice anything different in the students from other countries? Do they seem better educated (whatever that means. . .) at least in terms of core competencies? Do the U.S. students seem to have a different process in terms of problem solving, perhaps more flexible, more "outside the box" in terms of solutions? Do the kids get to talk to each other about what school is like in their respective countries?

I guess the above is more than "a question." :)
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Optimistic
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R2, that sounds so fun, but INTENSE!
Quote:
 
close to competitions they will have practice sessions that last four to eight hours, 2-5 days a week.
:eek:

How long has this program been around? It´s such a great idea, and sounds very well-developed. Our gifted programs in grade school and high school were a joke in comparison. More like some kind of staus you achieve, and then occasionally have meetings, do some kind of random event. Developing critical thinking skills is so important, and pretty poorly done in our ed. system, I think. Working on practical problems instead of those abstract, textbook problems is so valuable.
PHOTOS

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
- Mark Twain


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot
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jon-nyc
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So very awesome, R2.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Mikhailoh
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LD, glad to see Luke participating. IT is one of the finest programs.

Judging by what I have seen, there is not a thing wrong with the education my daughter received in a public school, but she went to an excellent rated school. She certainly received a much better education at that level than I did.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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