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Educational Standards? They Don’t Come
Higher Than In Odyssey of the Mind
by Joanne Rompel, Illinois Association Director and
Educator of Gifted & Talented
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preparing to meet and exceed each student's needs to the
best of our abilities, educators look at learning styles, standards,
and student performance. Leaving no child behind is a
national decree. “If it's not standard based it's not happening
during our class time,” is the cry. Educators have found that
using Odyssey of the Mind is a way to extend creative experiences
in a real work-world environment while aligning with
national, state, and school standards.
The Odyssey of the Mind program is able
to meld the state and national learning standards
while extending academic challenges
that employ the processing of thinking skills.
Students are required to solve real-world problems
in a creative venue designed to fulfill the
requirements of the long-term problems
offered each year.
The problems encompass the academic
skills required by state and national curricula;
they are cognizant of the academically talented
and challenge students in a variety of gen-res.
Without having to “learn through the seat of their pants,”
students learn by doing, moving, and sharing. They practice
social skills through working in teams, negotiation through validating
their ideas, and assessment through the use of their own
and problem rubrics.
Educators delight in the thought that they can capture students’
aha! as they discover new ideas, formulate hypotheses,
test many solutions, and, as a team, decide on a final product
based on an evaluation that keeps the target in focus.
Many school districts are experiencing serious cutbacks in
fine arts and other classes for their special populations — both
remedial and challenge groups. Odyssey of the Mind provides
standard-based, goal-oriented curriculum experiences that are
educationally solid in all subject areas while immersing students
at various levels in the learning process.
Students are consumers of education. They are developing
not only academically but also socially and skillfully. Specific
tasks designed to practice their newly acquired
skills are measurable; growth is observable and
can be accurately reported through the use of
rubric (evaluation). Students learn the real
work-world skills of defining the problem,
developing many possible solutions, and establishing
criteria to evaluate the process. They
then decide, as a group, how to implement
their solution in a creative way. Not only do
they learn what is required, they learn to budget
time, resources, and materials to complete
and “market” their “product” (solution).
While students across many grade levels receive the same
long-term problems, the end product is always unique, and age
and academically appropriate. The application of standard-based
learning at each age and skill level validates the educational
value of the Odyssey of the Mind's creative, social, and interactive
learning. Bringing standards to this program or bringing this
program to the standards isn’t the issue. In standards-based education
we have goals. In Odyssey of the Mind, we have fun
while learning and meeting those goals.
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