Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Four Odyssey of the Mind campus-based teams will represent Spring Branch ISD at upcoming World Finals competition after regional and state competitions were held earlier this spring.

Odyssey World Finals competition will be held May 22-25 on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

Representing SBISD will be student teams from Terrace Elementary, Spring Forest and Memorial Middle Schools, and Stratford High School. 

Odyssey of the Mind, also called OM, is a creative, problem-solving group competition open to students at all grade levels. Student teams collaborate on a pre-set, or Long-Term Problem, during local, regional and state-level competitions.

During competitions, OM student teams also solve a first-time, so-called Spontaneous Problem. At local competition recently, the top two teams from each OM problem and division were picked to represent Texas and the United States at World Finals. 

SBISD’s World Finals teams include:

• Terrace Elementary placed 1st in The Classical Problem with its solution related to Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions.
• Spring Forest Middle and Memorial Middle School teams placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, in The Humorous Problem titled “Opposites Distract.”
• Stratford High School placed 1st in the High School division with a balsa wood structure that had to be tossed before being crushed.

Earlier this spring, 12 OM teams from SBISD campuses advanced to State Finals competition, which was held at Waller High School on April 6. Houston Area Region Odyssey results for these state-level teams:

• Problem 1 (The Vehicle Problem) – Ridgecrest Elementary, 1st; Rummel Creek Elementary, 4th
• Problem 2 (The Technical Problem) – Spring Forest Middle, 3rd 
• Problem 3 (The Classical Problem) – Terrace Elementary, 2nd; Memorial Middle, 5th; Westchester Academy (Middle School), 6th; Westchester Academy (High School), 2nd
• Problem 4 (The Engineering Problem) – Wilchester Elementary, 2nd; Spring Oaks Middle, 1st; Stratford High, 1st
• Problem 5 (The Humorous Problem) – Spring Forest Middle, 1st; Memorial Middle, 4th

At World Finals in East Lansing, Mich., district schools will compete against other U.S. students, as well as winning student teams from Poland, Russia, Japan, Germany, China and several other nations.

To learn more about these high performing student teams and SBISD’s Odyssey of the Mind program, district families are encouraged to attend a special campus meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 16. This meeting will be held at Terrace Elementary School, 10400 Rothbury.

For questions or more information, please phone Iris Story, SBISD Council of PTAs Odyssey of the Mind representative at 713.364.6050.