A team of students from the University of Silesia in Katowice participated in the 33rd National Final of the Odyssey of the Mind in Gdynia and won the Polish Championship in their age category. Participation in this project is related to research ‘Creative problem solving on the example of the Odyssey of the Mind programme’. The team consists of six students belonging to the ‘Włącznik’ student research group: Sara Piątek, Julia Stachura, Barbara Górecka, Klaudia Nowak, Sylwia Korzon and Natalia Mecner, as well as coach Magdalena Christ, PhD from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Silesia.
Thanks to the victory, the student team gained the opportunity to represent Poland at the Odyssey of the Mind World Championships, which will last from 20 to 25 May 2024 in the United States.
Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational programme at the centre of which is a creative problem-solving competition addressed to young people aged up to 26. The goal is to develop 21st century competencies such as critical and innovative thinking, perseverance, use of technology, empathy and teamwork. Teams, under the supervision of coaches, choose one of five long-term problems to solve and work on solving it for several months. These are interdisciplinary projects that combine technical, humanistic and artistic aspects and require the use of knowledge in practice. The second element of the competition is solving spontaneous problems – these are tasks requiring improvisation under time pressure and creativity with limited resources. The Polish edition of Odyssey of the Mind has been running for over 30 years. 288 teams from 132 schools and other institutions from all over the country took part in this year’s edition of the competition.
If you want to take part in the competition in the future and compete with the best, we invite you to study at the University of Silesia!
Photo: archive of Magdalena Christ, PhD
Photo: archive of Magdalena Christ, PhD
Photo: archive of Magdalena Christ, PhD