JAMS Odyssey Of The Mind Team Heading To Worlds

EDISON, NJ — A John Adams Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team won first place at the state competition, and is heading to the World competition later this month.

The team, made up of five sixth and seventh graders, have spent the past eight months working on their Odyssey of the Mind problem, which required them to build a balsa wood structure capable of supporting hundreds of pounds. In addition to the structure, the team needed to write and act out a skit.

"The team entertained the audience with a circus themed performance, a rap and original characters developed by the team. They wrote an original script, created all of their own props, structures, scenery, and costumes, and learned about teamwork and creativity along the way!" Aparna Naphade Singla wrote in a GoFundMe page set up for the team.

After they preformed their rehearsed skit, the team had to complete a spontaneous problem solving question in front of a panel of judges.

Now, the team has another problem to solve, and is looking to the outside community for help: paying for their trip to Worlds. Held May 23-26 at Iowa State University, school officials expect the trip to Worlds to cost $11,000.

"The school and the team did not budget for such a rare accomplishment and are actually going through their own financial challenges at this time," Singla said in a GoFundMe. The costs will be used to cover registration fees, travel and lodging, meals, and shipping expenses for the skit props.

"The JAMS team's victory is the result of many months of diligent script writing, costume designing, and prop building, structure building, all completed by the students with no outside assistance," Singla wrote. "Thank you for any and all help you are willing to provide-- every little bit counts! Every dollar donated is a minute saved for the kids to focus on preparation and a chance to even better represent New Jersey!"

Image via GoFundMe, a Patch promotional parter