Odyssey of the Mind JUDGES TRAINING 2014 OKLAHOMA

What is Odyssey of the Mind?  Team-driven creative problem solving competition  Team-driven  Creative  Problem solving  Competition

What is Odyssey specifically?  Four divisions in Odyssey  Primary: K,1 st,2 nd grade  Division I: 1 st -5 th grade  Div. II: 6 th -8 th grade  Div. III: 9 th -12 th grade  Div. IV: collegiate  Three major parts to Odyssey  Long Term200 points  Style50 points  Spontaneous100 points

What do officials do?  Long Term  Staging area judge  Long Term Judges  Style Judges  Spontaneous Judges

Long Term Problem  8 minute skit that obeys specific criteria  Worked on entire year  5 different problems  Problem 1- Vehicle  Problem 2- Technical  Problem 3- Classics  Problem 4- Balsa wood  Problem 5- Performance

Vehicle Problem  Alternates between large and small vehicles  Vehicles have to complete certain tasks  Lots of “objective” scoring

Runaway Train  Up to 3 vehicles  Travel on tracks to stations  Overcome obstacles from a list  Humorous conductor character  Victory lap with banner

Technical Problem  Build devices to perform specific tasks  Objective scoring

Experiencing Technical Difficulties  Create at least 3 devices operated by rubber bands  Each’s function different  Complete 7 required tasks  Ring bell  Raise a flag  Open book, etc  “Technical Failure” which must be fixed  Mysterious Engineer Character  EVERYTHING MUST FIT IN TWO SUITCASES

Classics Problem  Performance based around classic works  Art, literature, architecture, history, etc.  Subjective Scoring

Pandora’s Box  Video game retelling of Pandora’s Box  Prologue with “Representation of the box”  A Gamer Character  Multi-level video game  3 avatars that represent a different evil  Power meter  Hope

Balsa Wood Problem  Teams build balsa wood structures to hold as much weight as possible  Scoring for Balsa wood is crazy* *My opinion

Lose Your Marbles  Structure holds as much weight as possible  Starts with 5 marbles in structure  Device removes part of structure, releases marble  Integrate weight placement and “losing your marbles” into performance

Performance Problem  Large emphasis on performance elements (humor, stage presence, etc)  Generally some kind of quest with 3 tasks  Subjective Scoring

Silent Movie  Show a silent movie being made in present time  Explain why  Director  Movie Critic  Humorous Villain Character  3 silly acts of villainy  Subtitles  Musical score  Short trailer

Style  Complements Long Term problem  Found in back of Long Term  5 scoring categories, 10 points each  2 dictated to you: Visual appearance, creative use of a material  2 “Free Choice”  1 “Overall Effect of the four Style elements in the performance”  Things that make you go “WOW!”  Doesn’t have to be tangible

Spontaneous  Completely independent of Long Term  No coach present, team goes into a room and do a problem  3 types of problems  Verbal  Verbal-hands on  Hands on  Total secrecy about the problem

Outside Assistance  Nobody is allowed to help with the problem in any way.  No giving them ideas, no telling them their ideas are good/bad, etc.  As a judge, you can’t tell them what to improve, only hints

Dissecting a problem INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM LIMITATIONS SITE, SETUP COMPETITION SCORING PENALTIES STYLE TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR WILL PROVIDE TEAM WILL PROVIDE

Forms: Team Required List  3 copies  * Tells the judges what to score *  ^^^IMPORTANT  Vary from problem to problem

Forms: Style  3 copies  Can’t be anything already scored in Long Term  1 and 2 are dictated by problem  3 and 4 are free choices  5 is a bit of writing to make the judges score them well

Problem 3- 2 years ago  Read through problem  Talk about problem  Look at forms  View solution View solution  Talk about judging long term/style

Clarifications  When teams don’t understand part of the problem  General Clarifications  Team-Specific Clarifications

Competitions  3 Competitions  Super Regionals-  Feb. 28, Sequoyah Middles School, Edmond  State-  March 28, Oklahoma State Student Union  World Finals-  May 20-23, Michigan State University, East Lansing  Div I teams perform in the morning, higher divisions later  Spont all day

Placement  Top 6 teams per problem per division advance from Super Regionals to State  2 teams per problem per division advance to World Competition  Scores are a combination of all three scoring categories put together  Special Awards  OMER Award  Ranatra fusca Award  Ranatra fusca award winners advance automatically to World