A select group of Capron Elementary School students, under the direction of Katie Holland and Stacey Granat, recently competed in the Odyssey of the Mind regional competition at Menchville High School in Newport News, bringing home the second-place trophy. 

A CES news release noted that Odyssey of the Mind is an international program that teaches students how to develop and use their natural creativity to become problem-solvers. Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving program where teams work together at length to solve a predefined long-term problem and present their solution to the problem at a competition. 

By tapping into creativity, and through encouraging imaginative paths to problem-solving, students learn skills that will provide them with the ability to solve problems — great and small — for a lifetime. 

This program is designed to help students at all learning levels grow as individual learners, grow as team members and to reach their full potential. It emphasizes teamwork, budgeting, time management and public speaking. 

The team’s commitment to the project gave it an opportunity to come together in a way where ideas were expressed and appreciated, responsibility was shared, resources were managed and new friends were made. Students are free to express their ideas and suggestions without fear of criticism. The creative problem-solving process rewards thinking “outside of the box.” 

“We were so proud of their dedication to the project, which produced a creative product, as well as helped the students gain confidence in themselves,” CES officials said.