BIDDEFORD — Biddeford Middle School’s Odyssey of the Mind Team placed first in Maine at the 2020-21 Virtual Odyssey of the Mind Tournament. The team of eighth-graders not only placed first in their division — with a technical problem called “Virtual Odyssey” — but were also awarded the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award, recognizing a team or individual for demonstrating outstanding creativity. As Biddeford’s first team to receive the honor, the primary factor for their selection was their ability to enact the skit with team members who performed in person and virtually.

“Once again, our Biddeford students have shown that they can be successful during these challenging times,” said Suzanne Tighe, Odyssey of the Mind coach and Biddeford Intermediate School’s K-5 gifted and talented teacher. “It was a challenge competing virtually and being socially distanced this year but our amazing team of eighth-graders rose to the occasion. As a team, they focused on what they can do to make things work instead of focusing on what is not working.”

BMS eighth-graders Eva Aranovitch, Jennifer Danis, Ella Ireland, Layla Keddy, and Cotton Schlaver, coached by Tighe and Victoria Salo, secured the highest score for their long-term problem, style, and spontaneous problem and will be progressing to the World Finals competition later this month. The “Virtual Odyssey” problem tasked the team with creating a performance involving a Virtual Reality World. As part of the problem, the team needed to write their own script, design and create their own scenery, costumes, props, and three technical devices powered by indirect human power without any adult assistance.

“In my 13 years of coaching Odyssey of the Mind students, this is the first team to win the prestigious Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award,” said Salo, Biddeford’s Odyssey of the Mind District coordinator and Biddeford High School science teacher. “I am so proud of them for working so well collaboratively and thinking outside the box. This team is prepared to move onto the Virtual World Finals.”

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving program involving students from kindergarten through college. Team members work together at length to solve a predefined long-term problem and present their solution to the problem at a competition.