The Odyssey of the Mind World Finals started Wednesday night with opening ceremonies at Hilton Coliseum.

Students from across the world have spent the past months perfecting a solution to a long-term problem. The teams then compete with their solution at regional competitions and then advance to State Finals and World Finals.

“We’ve been working since the beginning of January,” said Alyssa Jaeffer, a 6th grader from South Burlington, Vt.

Jaeffer’s team attended state competition in March.

“The structure was the hardest,” said Holly Gaugling, a 6th grader.

Her teammates agreed, citing numerous strict requirements as the biggest obstacle.

Valerie Chickanosky, the team’s coach, has been involved with Odyssey of the Mind for six years. Her team of five 6th graders – Bethany Audette, Jaeffer, Annie Chickanosky, Karly Loyer and Gaugling – have been involved for years.

“Iowa State is beautiful,” they all agreed. The team is staying at the Memorial Union.

Another team found a problem in raising money to get to Iowa.

“Finding ways to raise enough money was a challenge,” said Alexa Osen, a high school junior from New York.

Osen said her team had car washes, bake sales, dinner performances and raffles to find the money. They took a bus from New York to Iowa and are staying at the Memorial Union.

Finding the funds for the trip wasn’t the only obstacle the team faced.

“We had some conflicts with team members,” said Phoebe Oglesbee, a sophomore. “We had to change our script a couple times, even.”

Osen and her teammates got involved when they were in 4th grade in response to an announcement given every year. This is their second World Finals competition.

For many, the World Finals is the first opportunity to come to Iowa.

“We didn’t realize it took as many hours as it did,” said Vanessa Velvins, chaperone of a team of 4th graders.

Fellow chaperone Amy Dockery agreed.

“The only hills we saw were the man-made hills for the overpass. We’d say ‘Look! It’s a hill!’ but then we’d get closer and it would only turn out to be an overpass,” Dockery said.

Teams generally compete in their own level, but can compete against different levels if they qualify.

Jennifer Del Re, Jaclyn Itzkowitz, Victoria Keiser, Brianna Rodriguez, Danielle Kessel, Jessica Helmstetter and Stephen Winetsky, a team of 5th and 6th graders from Hazlet, N.J., had the opportunity to compete against a middle-school team.

“We’ve been really happy with our public schools. They really focus on creativity and problem solving, and they are doing a great job,” said Rhonda Winetsky, chaperone for the team.

Finalists are staying in various residences in the Ames area. Iowa State opened residence halls, as well, including Friley and Wallace Halls.

The event lasts until Sunday afternoon with housing checkout.

Odyssey of what?

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that teaches kindergarten through college-age students to apply their creativity to solving problems. The program provides problems for students to solve, ranging from building mechanical devices to interpreting classic books.

A sample problem for the oldest division is for teams to “design, build and drive a vehicle that will be used as three different floats in a parade. The vehicle will leave a ‘back lot’ decorated as the first float, travel around a parade route and return to the ‘back lot.’ There, it will change appearance into another float and travel the route again. It will repeat this one more time. One of the floats will have a technical feature. The parade will conclude with a ‘spectacular celebration,’ which will also include a technical feature. The team will create a theme for its parade and include a featured character in its presentation.” The cost limit for the project is $145.

– Compiled from the Odyssey of the Mind Web site