Trichy :

Seven students belonging to a city school bagged prizes at a creative problem-solving competition involving students from kindergarten to college. The annual event called the “Odyssey of the Mind” was held at the Iowa State University in the US last month.

The students of Alpha Wisdom Vidyashram Senior Secondary School who took part in the event came 21{+s}{+t} among the 236 teams that participated in the competition.

The competition was held by Creative Competitions, Inc, based in New Jersey. During the contest, team members work together at length to solve a predefined problem. They also participate in a spontaneously held contest where in players have to generate solutions to a problem they have not encountered before. The seven-member team from the school belonged to Classes 7 to 10. The students are R M Muthumeena, 12, C Indumugi, 14, S M Nhanthini, 15, P Aditya, 14, R Sivaprasath, 13, D Akshay, 14 and S Laushiya, 14.

Seven teams from India took part in the event. The students said that they won the hands-on competition by scoring 93 points. We solved problems with ease despite difficulties, said C Indumugi. Rajeshwari Ramakrishanan, the teacher who accompanied the students to Iowa, said the team also won the floating banner competition wherein they presented a temple-like structure.

Thousands of teams from throughout the US and from about 25 other countries participate in the programme annually. The 2014 event was held from May 28 to May 31. In the contests, team members are asked to apply their creativity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / TNN / June 11th, 2014