Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In what is believed to be a first for the valley, two schools were state winners and have advanced to the world competition.
They are Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Roanoke and Community School, a private school in Roanoke County.
Each team has seven members with a volunteer coach who serves as adviser and coordinator. They will compete in different categories.
Jackson's students are competing in a category in which they apply engineering principles to build a structure of balsa wood and glue that supports as much weight as possible.
Principal Charles Kennedy said the object is to pile the most weight on the structure without breaking it. The Jackson students also will perform a dramatic skit, he said.
Community School's team is competing in the classic vaudeville category. The students will perform an eight-minute show with three original acts that emphasize a positive aspect of society.
Bonnie Hooper, coach of the Community School team, said the children have been practicing the show several hours a week since January. They designed the costumes and wrote the material.
Students from kindergarten through college compete in the Odyssey of the Mind. They solve problems in a variety of areas - from building mechanical devices to giving their own interpretation of literary classics.
Last year, a team from Cave Spring Junior High School in Roanoke County competed in the world finals and placed sixth in the mini-terrain vehicle category.
Two years ago, Jackson was the first Roanoke school to win the state finals. It was runner-up in the state competition last year.
About 15,000 participants and supporters are at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville this week for what is described as the largest creative problem-solving competition in the world.
Teams have come from across the Unites States and other countries, including Australia, Canada, China, England, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland and Russia.
Odyssey of the Mind competition began in 1978, when 28 schools from New Jersey participated. In this year's competition, there were more than 1 million participants from 12,640 schools worldwide.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***