Post 5

Saturday's State tournament went really well. It was a long day, but I got to see some really cool ideas, so it was definitely worth it. As I had hoped and suspected, teams that had advanced to State used their time very effectively to improve their performances and I was very happy. Unfortunately, I can't describe any of the solutions in detail, but some of the designs I saw just blew me away. The top two teams from each division and each problem, 30 teams total, get to advance to the World Finals, held this year at Iowa State University in Aimes, Iowa where they will compete against the best teams from other states as well as teams from all over the world. The best of luck to them!

Post 4

Since I'll be using my Odyssey if the Mind work as my volunteering, I guess I'll explain a little about what I do. The problem I'm judging is called "Ooh-motional Vehicle" and the challenge is for teams to make a vehicle which one of them can ride on that also changes emotion. The teams are judged on the creativity and engineering of their design as well as the story they make up to go with the car. Some of the ideas that were shown were very cool, but unfortunately there were a lot of penalties and missed points (for reasons I can't disclose in the interest of secrecy). Saturday's competition will feature the best teams from all the regions, so I'm very hopeful that they will have corrected their mistakes and do even better this time.