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DV a standout at Odyssey tournament

| 22 Mar 2017 | 03:26
    Problem 1, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 1, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 2, Division I — 1st place, Delaware Valley Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division I — 1st place, Delaware Valley Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 2, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 4, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School #3887 — with Kaylee Adora, Sydney Culver, Nick Shi and Terry Kenneally Balton
    Problem 4, Division III — 1st place, Delaware Valley High School #3887 — with Kaylee Adora, Sydney Culver, Nick Shi and Terry Kenneally Balton
    Problem 1, Division I — 2nd place, Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Problem 1, Division I — 2nd place, Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division I — 2nd place, Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division I — 2nd place, Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division II — 2nd place, Delaware Valley Middle School
    Problem 2, Division II — 2nd place, Delaware Valley Middle School
    Problem 4, Division II — 2nd place, Delaware Valley Middle School
    Problem 4, Division II — 2nd place, Delaware Valley Middle School
    Problem 5, Division I — 2nd place Shohola Elementary School
    Problem 5, Division I — 2nd place Shohola Elementary School
    Problem 2, Division II — 3rd place (lottery pick), Dingman-Delaware Middle School
    Problem 2, Division II — 3rd place (lottery pick), Dingman-Delaware Middle School
    Problem 5, Division III — 2nd place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 5, Division III — 2nd place, Delaware Valley High School
    Problem 4, Division III Delaware Valley High School with Nick Shi, Kaylee Adora, Sydney Culver and Terry Kenneally Balton
    Problem 4, Division III Delaware Valley High School with Nick Shi, Kaylee Adora, Sydney Culver and Terry Kenneally Balton
    Primary — Movin' Out!, Shohola Elementary School
    Primary — Movin' Out!, Shohola Elementary School
    Problem 5, Division I — 3rd place (large division), Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Problem 5, Division I — 3rd place (large division), Dingman-Delaware Elementary School
    Primary — Movin' Out!, Delaware Valley Elementary School
    Primary — Movin' Out!, Delaware Valley Elementary School
    Problem 1, Division I — 1st place, Delaware Valley Elementary School
    Problem 1, Division I — 1st place, Delaware Valley Elementary School

By Anya Tikka
MILFORD — Delaware Valley School District shone at the 2017 NEPA Odyssey of the Mind Regional Tournament held at Pocono Mountain West High School on Saturday, March 11.
Thirteen of DV's teams will advance to the next stage, the largest number of teams from any school in the region.
The state-level competition will take place in Moon, Pa., on Saturday, April 1. The winners of that tournament will advance to the World Finals in Michigan later in the year.
Odyssey of the Mind is “a kind of creative problem-solving competition,” described the tournament official and regional public relations director Ryan Balton in a press release. It stresses quick thinking and team work, and the participants are from all the grades, from K to12.
The training of students numbering 700 from dozens of schools from the NEPA region started already last fall, when the students formed teams and started to work on their projects. They spent the year training to solve long-term problems that ranged from engineering to theatrical, and then, at the competition, they performed for eight minutes to present their solutions. Their task was to create a robot that learns from others, or to imagine how time traveling could have inspired important works of art.
On tourney day, the teams also received a secret challenge, “a spontaneous problem,” that they had to solve on the spot.
Balton said the students’ projects showcased their skills in acting, writing, engineering, scenery, and costumes, and the solutions they came up with were their completely original creations.
Apart from the team awards, Delaware Valley High School’s Sydney Culver got also another, individual award. She received the annual Karl Schneck Jr. Memorial Scholarship founded in memory of the past NEPA regional co-director.
The Delaware Valley High School team also won one of the problem solutions, receiving the Ranatra Fusca Creativity Award honoring teams or individuals "who display tremendous creativity or risk-taking at the competition.” Their performance was called “Ready, Set, Build, Balsa!” in which they acted a scene in an airplane, using “a series of intricate technical devices.”
The NEPA region includes Bradford, Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
Photos by Dustin Balton