Bells Mill Fifth-Graders Win Coveted Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award

Washington, DC March 12, 2016 -- A team of fifth graders from Bells Mill Elementary was awarded the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award at the Maryland/DC Odyssey of the Mind Tournament in Washington, DC and is invited to compete in the World Finals at Iowa State University. The Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award is considered the most prestigious honor in Odyssey of the Mind program. This is the first time this award has been presented at a Maryland State Tournament and serves as an incentive for risk-taking and out-of-the-box thinking for Odyssey participants worldwide. It is presented to teams who exhibit exceptional creativity either in some aspect of the problem solution, their behavior, or through an extraordinary idea beyond the problem solution.

The team of Audrey Benford, Harrison Benford, Leah Broadhead, Ryan Chernoff and Ilayda Dogan, Sophia Hoffmeyer and Junwoo Kim has been together for five years and concluded months of hard work and dedication with their solution to the problem, “Something Fishy.” The judges wrote in their nomination: “This team blew [us] away. Every technical and artistic element was as good as it could possibly be. From the ‘raining tacos’ song and weather change, to the Scottish accent and beautiful catfish, amazing sockness monster, there were so many elements that had the judges raving that we almost lost track of them all…three original songs, great acting, enthusiasm in explaining performance elements to judges. Every detail was so well thought out, we couldn’t believe it was created by kids.”

The six-month process included the team researching scientific principles for making machines including a pulley system and a hand-cranked piston; painstakingly creating a realistic surf shack and fishing pier out of recycled pallets and salvaged bamboo; and creating several artful props including a gigantic four-foot catfish, an elaborate “sockness monster” made of recycled tights and socks, and a supersized Gingerbread Man costume for their tallest team member. In addition, students operated power tools safely and integrated music and humor into their solution. The team then combined all their acquired knowledge and skills to create the eight-minute production.

Bells Mill Elementary has the largest Odyssey of the Mind participation in Maryland, with nine teams working on creative problem-solving this year, four of which were invited to move on to the international competition level. The program is lead by Trudi and Dominic Benford, who also coached the team receiving the Ranatra Fusca Award. The students will represent Bells Mill Elementary and the state of Maryland at the the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Iowa State University in Ames May 25-28. They will compete with almost 5,000 students from over 33 countries.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. They then bring their solutions to competition on the local, state, and World level. Thousands of teams from throughout the U.S. and from about 25 other countries participate in the program. For more information, visit www.odysseyofthemind.com.