Odyssey of the Mind

Odyssey of the Mind

Founded	1978
Founder	C. Samuel Micklus Theodore Gourley
Type	Creative problem-solving competition
Focus	Creativity and Problem Solving
Origins	Glassboro State College, New Jersey
Region served	USA and 24+ other countries
Key people	"Dr. Sam" (C. Samuel Micklus)
Website	https://www.odysseyofthemind.com

Odyssey of the Mind, often abbreviated as OM or OotM, is a creative problem-solving program where team members present their solution at a competition to a predefined long-term problem that takes many months to complete and involves writing, design, construction, and theatrical performance. A spontaneous portion of the competition has the team also generate solutions to a problem they have not seen before.

The program is now international, with teams from Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, Czech Republic, DODDS, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Switzerland, Togo, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan, regularly competing in addition to teams from the United States.

Odyssey of the Mind is a trademark of Creative Competitions. Competitions are administered by a mixture of regional non-profit associations and the for-profit Creative Competitions corporation.

Odyssey of the Mind teams are divided into four divisions.

• Division I – Grades 3–5 (U.S.): Less than 12 years of age on May 1 of the competition year (Other International)
• Division II – Grades 6–8 (U.S.): Less than 15 years of age on May 1 of the competition year (Other International)
• Division III – Grades 9–12 (U.S.): Oldest team member does not qualify for Divisions I or II and is attending regular school (not a college, university, or anything similar) (Other International)
• Division IV – Collegiate for all teams. All team members must have a high school diploma or its equivalent and be enrolled in at least one course at a two- or four-year college or university.

The oldest team member determines the team's division.

There is also a non-competitive primary division for young children (grades K–2 U.S.), who are given a simplified problem and fewer constraints than the higher divisions. They present and are given feedback at the first level tournament and cannot advance, except for special occasions where officials invite a team to perform again at the state level.

In the United States, each participating state has its own Odyssey association. Most states are further broken down into regions. Teams compete at the regional level first. The highest-scoring teams progress to the state level. In the U.S. there is no national level. State-winning teams go directly to the World Finals, which have always been held in the United States, usually at the end of May.

There are five categories of problems that participants can solve.^[1]

• Vehicle: building vehicles of different sizes to perform specified tasks
• Technical: building "innovative contraptions"
• Classics: incorporates knowledge of architecture, art, and literature; can be a documentary or behind-the-scenes feature
• Structure: designing and building a structure using only balsa wood and glue to support the highest weight load
• Performance: acting, singing, and/or dancing based on a given theme

All teams who advance from their state finals, or their national finals if they are from outside of the US, are invited to World Finals. World Finals is the culmination of the entire year of Odyssey of the Mind. The dates and locations of previous world finals are listed in the table below.^[2]

• Official website
• COU – Creative Opportunities Unlimited