Published April 7, 2009
By Steve Lyttle
The Charlotte Observer
Twenty-one teams of students, including 15 from Mecklenburg County, qualified for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals by finishing first or second in the state championships Saturday at Wingate University.
Seven-member teams of students competed in five events, using creativity to solve problems and, in several divisions, performing skits to demonstrate their solutions. Problems range from building mechanical devices to interpreting literary classics.
They will compete May 27-30 in the world championships, facing teams from more than a dozen other nations. Those finals will be at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Leading the way locally were Myers Park High School and Charlotte Latin School, each with three world qualifiers. Three other schools – Lake Norman Charter, Unionville Elementary in Union County, and Brawley Middle in Iredell County – had two qualifiers each.
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