OM CompetitionI was in a team coached by Ms. Mamtha for the Odyssey of the Mind competition (a creativity contest) at the K-2 level. In our category, we had to create a play which features a Money Maker, encouraging friend, customer, and commercial. I was the Money Maker.
CREDITS:
Mr Lightning Bolt (Money Maker) - Shreyes
Encouraging Friend (does not have a particular name) - Julian
Mr Wire - Elia
The customer (does not have a name mentioned) - Nathan
The narrator (does not have a name mentioned) - Sebastian
Commercial Boy1 (does not have a name mentioned) - Ilan
PLOT:
Mr. Wire works to invent a spark, and then makes Mr. Lightning Bolt. Mr Lightning Bolt tries out his first (planting a money seed), 2nd (digging for gold), and 3rd (composting money) wacky ideas, but each of them fail. He tries sliding down the Golden Cliff, and gets very rich.
In the competition, I could only find one little hitch - everyone was too close to the Backdrop.
But to understand our competition, we need to go back one week before it.
Monday -
5:15 PM
Our dress rehearsal.
About 5:45 PM
The adults decide my paper costume is inflexible, so they say that we have to replace it with a foam-cloth type of material.
Tuesday -
About 4:45
We visit Michael's. It only has yellow felt.
About 6:00
Mummy gets lots of yellow felt from Joann Fabrics.
Wednesday -
I make my costume and try it out. It works!
Thursday -
Ilan has a high fever, and won't be coming to the play.
Competition
Before the play, we had even more dress rehearsals.
We walked into the door of Room D1. We setup our props on the wrong side...
"Could you please turn your props..."
We turned our props.
"Hello, I am Mr. Lightning Bolt..."
"I am always your encouraging friend. Come on... show us your first idea!"
...
"Go on! Go on!"
[laughter]
"I am rich! Rich! Rich!"
...
"The End!"
"The End!"
"The End!"
The judges proceeded to ask us questions. Elia brought up the fact that since Ilan was sick, he took over Ilan's role.
Awards Ceremony
"This team is Bay Area Homeschoolers! Bay Area Homeschoolers..."
We marched around the auditorium and sat down. We impatiently waited for the primary category.
"We never had this before... It's a 29-way tie!"
"First: Bay Area Homeschoolers."
They gave medals to all of us (including me).
"Now, the 'Ranatra Fusca' award goes to... this team made a rock into a rock-king chair, and then into a rock-et. They made a Donald Trump-et... this team is The Bay Area Homeschoolers!"
The award, the highest in the OM (this level) was given to the older group.
______________________________________________________________
1 Ilan had a high fever and couldn't come to the show, so Elia took over his part.
National History Day
I also participated in the National History Day (a history competition), forming a team with my new friend Vishnu. For the Elementary Division, you have to make a 2D poster summarizing a Debate or Diplomacy in history.
We tried to decide on the topic. I picked the XYZ Affair, and Vishnu picked the Cuban Missile Crisis. We were disagreeing so much that we were asked to pick second topics."I would pick the... Pearl Harbor Diplomacy," said Vishnu.
"And I would pick the Lincoln-Douglas Debates."
We finally decided on a coin toss.
"I would pick... heads," I said.
"Tails!"
"That was because my hand touched it."
"Heads!"
"That was because my foot touched it."
"Let's ask Suraga."
"Tails!"
Our topic was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Later, we decided that the title would be "The Terrifying Thirteen - The Cuban Missile Crisis."
We started gathering images for the poster and voting them in. We got the following sequence:
Map - Missile Discovery - Pre-Quarantine (includes EX-COMM & Speech) - Quarantine - Post Resolution (includes Adlai Stevenson) - Resolution - Aftermath
One rule of NHD is that all words (including title, subtitle, and photo captions, but not including quotes) have to be less than 350 words. We got to work on the captions.
My list of captions had 199 words, but we shortened it and also shortened Vishnu's list. The total word count came to 184 words.
We agreed on a set of quotes. Among them were:
"If there ever was a time I want to be right in my life, this is it."
"...clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace..."
"We were eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fella just blinked."
The next big fight was for color coding. Vishnu thought that all captions and quotes should be color coded by a colored construction paper behind it, and thought that people would be attracted to the poster by this. I thought that only quotes should be color coded by highlighting the text (in Word), and I did not want anyone to get attracted by any color coding scheme. We agreed that Vishnu could use his scheme on the captions, and I could use my scheme on the quotes.
We started gluing down pictures. We first put the title and subtitle on the top center, the map directly below it, and around the map, the discovery photos. The pictures resumed in a "timeline" format (we made a timeline on both sides of the poster) from EX-COMM to Removal of Missiles. We then made another section which had Resolution, Aftermath, and Consequences. Vishnu prepared a conclusion, which we shortened 2 days before the competition (actually, we had only one month to make our poster, since we started late).
Only one thing was missing in the poster: a color coding legend. We made it 2 days before the competition.
The judges could ask us to explain about our poster and give us 15 minutes to answer. We practiced taking turns and explaining about our poster. The average time we took was 12 minutes. We were ready.
______________________________________________________________
Competition
Our team ("Gnana Academy") was the first team to present, at 9:00 am.
At 8:30 am, they asked us to "setup" our poster. We came in and set up our poster. We then left.
At 8:45 am, we started our "game-fight," and played until 8:55 am.
"Shreyes Nallan and Vishnu Tejus?" they asked.
We entered the room. There were three judges awaiting us.
"Explain," said one in a soft voice.
"And my name is Shreyes. Our topic is: The Terrifying Thirteen - The Cuban Missile Crisis..."
...
"As Vishnu mentioned, Kennedy signed the blockade proclamation on the 23rd..."
...
The judges were amazed.
"You told me more about the Cuban Missile Crisis than I ever knew..."
"You mean that you lived during -"
"Yes, I was in college at that time."
"I wish my elementary students were like you."
The judges could only find one problem: say com-yoo-nist instead of cum-yoo-nist.
___________________________________________________________
Awards Ceremony
They started with explaining some rules, and quickly moved on.
"First, we have our Elementary 2D Display [our category]. Our winner is... Shreyes Nallan and Vishnu Tejus!"
We paraded on to the stage. They gave us a certificate and said that we would move on into the State Level. We paraded back, proudly.
_______________________________________________________________
