Odyssey of the Mind Is an International Educational Program That Provides Creative

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"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."In Loudoun County alone over 1500 students participate in the program, which is entirely run by volunteers. Find out more atodysseyofthemind.com.

This weekend, on March 14, 2015 several Eagle Ridge Middle School teams participated in the Region 16 tournament at Park View High School. We would like to extend our congratulations to all of our teams and a thank you for all their work since October to get ready for this tournament.

For Problem 1, Division II, Runaway Train, the vehicle problem, Naeem Syed, SamhithaSomavarapu, Pranav Masson, SiddharthLakkoju, Lakshmi Jagarlamudi, SahilPrusti, Ria Sharma represented Eagle Ridge as Team A and came in first place.Ansel Sanchez, AnandKanumuru, SahillGullapalli, EshanKaul, AnikethPranay, NachikethYellapragada and PrerakThakkar represented Eagle Ridge as Team B and came in third place.

For Problem 2 Division II, Experiencing Technical Difficulties, the machine/device problem, Krishan Patel, KritiHubli, AryaGanesan, SionaPathak, Farhan Muhammad, and VinayBhaiprepresented Eagle Ridge. The team placed second place. Congratulations also toIan Stuart, whoparticipatedon the Division II team that placed third for this problem.

For Problem 3, Division II Pandora's Box, the classics problem, James Painter, Matthew Flynn, Jocelyn Yee, Alex Schleyer, KhushiMaheshwari, Ethan Orourke, and LaurenOrourke, representing Eagle Ridge as Team B, came in first place. Russell Smith, Stephen Payes, Zara Wasique, Ryan Sica, James Hartmann and Oliver Mosher, representing Eagle Ridge as Team B, came in eighth place. Many teams competed in this problem at across all divisions. It is a performance-based problem, which is always a favorite with teams.

For Problem 4, Division II, Losing Your Marbles, the balsa wood problem, AdvaitAmdekar, SahajaAdusumalli, PrenyaHarikrishnan, NandikaVuyyuri, Surya Chinnareddy, Krupa Patel, and Hayden Denning, representing Eagle Ridge as Team A, came in third place.

Finally, for Problem 5, Division II Silent Movie, a performance based problem, Amber Garcha, Sarah Kim, SonalGullapalli, SafiyaHasan, Ashley Zheng, SamiyaHossain, and Allison Lam came inthird place. This is also favorite among teams. Many teams competed in this problem across all divisions.

Great work everyone! We're proud of all your effort for Eagle Ridge.

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As evidenced by the results, Eagle Ridge has a very strong Odyssey of the Mind program due the support of our parents. We hope to want to support and continue this program at Eagle Ridge and our now seeking a volunteer to serve as Coordinator for this program for the 2015-2016 school year.

Congratulations once more to everyone who participated this year.