Published April 8, 2008
By Ann Doss Helms
The Charlotte Observer
Schools from the Charlotte region dominated the state Odyssey of the Mind competition in Greenville on Saturday, taking nine of 15 first-place prizes in the contest of creative problem-solving.
Students choose among five challenges that test their research, design and performance skills. For instance, one assignment calls for creating a humorous skit presenting an original theory of why dinosaurs went extinct, including a replica of a dinosaur and a technical simulation of the theory.
Teams must also compete in spontaneous problem-solving. First-place winners advance to the world competition in College Park, Md., at the end of May.
High-school winners from the Charlotte area are the private Charlotte Latin School, Lake Norman High in Iredell-Statesville Schools and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Myers Park High.
Middle-school winners are CMS's South Charlotte Middle, Lake Norman Charter School in Huntersville and a team sponsored by the Cabarrus Rotary Club.
The youngest winners are CMS's Sharon and Idlewild elementaries and Union County's Unionville Elementary.
Six area teams took second-place awards: Olde Providence Elementary, Alexander Graham Middle, another team from Charlotte Latin and three more teams from Myers Park High.
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