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Roosevelt Elementary students get creative

Katie Parsons

Competition breeds creativity, or so 13 girls from Roosevelt Elementary School in Cocoa Beach hope to prove this weekend.

On Saturday, two teams from Roosevelt will demonstrate their creative problem solving skills at the Odyssey of the Mind state competition at the University of Central Florida.

This is the fourth consecutive year a team from Roosevelt has been at the state contest.

The group of 11- and 12-year-old students took first place in a regional competition, and a group of 9- and 10-year-old students placed second in their age group.

"There is no outside involvement allowed," said first-year coach Holly Grub, who is also a third-grade teacher at Roosevelt and mother of two team members. "Everything you see here was developed through their creativity and constructed by them alone."

Odyssey of the Mind is an international organization with a presence in 26 countries that encourages creative problem solving in students from kindergarten through college. It's open to boys and girls; it just happens that Roosevelt's teams are all-female.

Both Roosevelt teams hope this will also be the fourth consecutive year they make it through states to attend the world finals held each year at Iowa State University.

Preparation for the competitions has been ongoing since September. To get ready, each team receives a prompt and must create a skit, complete with a script, set and costumes, which fit the criteria. This year's theme: "Not-So-Scary Haunted House."

Each skit required illusions, at least one character who was not scared and a surprise ending. And it had to be eight minutes long.

Along with learning to perform and public speaking, the girls have learned to sew, use power tools and cut PVC pipe.

"They've learned a lot and have been willing and enthusiastic," Grubb said.

The rehearsed portion of the contest is only part of the scoring process, though. There is also a spontaneous problem solving portion. Each team is given either a hands-on or verbal challenge.

In rehearsal, the 11- and 12-year-old group participated in a spontaneous challenge where they had to creatively explain a basic Pacman-shaped piece of paper. Phrases such as "the great Pyramid with a moon behind it" and "a pizza eating a pie" were thrown out during the two minutes the girls had to complete the exercise.

Spontaneous-competition coach Eileen McElwee has been involved in Odyssey of the Mind since 1993. Like Grubb, she coached four of her own children when they were on problem-solving teams.

"One child is an engineer, and another is an actor," she said. "I definitely credit this experience with sparking those interests and confidence in them."

For the girls on Roosevelt's team, the appeal is both academic and fun.

"I liked that this activity incorporates creativity and teamwork," said Tia Tomacari, 12, who also plays soccer. "The spontaneous activities are fun, but I really like planning the long-term projects the most.