Forestville ES Wins OM World Title

A seven-member team from Forestville Elementary School in Great Falls captured the Ranatra Fusca award for their creativity and teamwork during the spontaneous section of the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Iowa City last weekend

The Ranatra Fusca Award was given to only six of the 815 teams at Worlds, which included more than 5,000 competitors at the finals across all age groups (elementary, middle, high school, and college). The award embodies all that the Odyssey of the Mind represents and can be won through solving either a long-term problem or a spontaneous one. Forestville was the only team to win the award through its success with the spontaneous problem.

The Forestville team is made up of two third-grade students, Sarina Bell and Daniel Silvestri; three fourth-grade students, Aditya Khera, Caroline Keys, and Sydney Pham; and two fifth-grade students, Gwyn Murphy and Lawrence Kang. Jeffrey LeLoup, a third grade advanced academics program teacher at Forestville, serves as the advisor.

 Other Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) teams that earned a top-10 finish included Stratford Landing Elementary School, third place in Problem 2, Weird Science, division I; Sandburg Middle School, fourth place in problem 2, Weird Science, division II; Kilmer Middle School, eighth place in problem 4, You Make the Call, division II; and  place in problem 1, Ooh-Motional Vehicle, division I.

The Odyssey of the Mind competition consists of two problems, a long term problem that competitors select from five predefined problems, then prepare a solution that they present to the judges; and a spontaneous problem, when just the students are presented with a problem to solve on the spot with no help from coaches, parents, or teachers.