Thursday, October 1, 2026
Ask some 12-year-olds to tell you an epic story, and you might hear a loosely paraphrased plot of a recent movie. Ask a 12-year-old member of the Long Beach Odyssey of the Mind team, and you might hear about a bachelorette party whose trip to Aruba goes awry, leading them to a supernatural ghost realm where they rely on the power of friendship, otherworldly “soul sisters” and a robot dog to find their way home.
That’s the type of creative thinking that is once again taking Long Beach Middle School and elementary school students to the world stage of one of the most unique competitions in international education. At the end of May, the local team will head to Iowa State University to compete in the Odyssey of the Mind world finals. In past years, the Long Beach team — known as Team Believe — has competed, and won, against teams from France, India, Korea, Mexico and Poland, among others. Team Believe first captured the world title in 2020, and repeated last year.
The Odyssey of the Mind blends theater, problem solving, technology and engineering, and communication skills. The unusual format presents teams with a choice of five distinct problems, each with detailed scenarios and challenges. In one of this year’s problems, for example, teams explored an unexpected location after experiencing a GPS malfunction, while dealing with translation difficulties. During the competition, this challenge was Problem 2.
A seven-member crew must produce a skit, running no longer than eight minutes, that addresses the problem’s challenges and meets judging criteria ranging from effectiveness in solving the problem to creativity and costume design. Team members are responsible for creating every aspect of the solution, including the scene’s plot details, a script and props.
Each team competes with multiple smaller teams categorized into grade-based divisions. Long Beach is active with two teams in Division 1, kindergarten through fifth grade, and two teams in Division 2, sixth through eighth grade. High school and college teams have divisions of their own. The entire team is coached by East Elementary teacher Douglas MacConnell, Long Beach High School teacher Eric Fox and Andie Techera, a Lido Elementary teaching assistant.
During a practice session at East Elementary this week, Fox explained that students focus on refining their presentation nearly all year long as they progress from regional competitions to the world finals. The state finals were held last month at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. Because teams work on the same problem throughout the entire competition series and receive detailed judges’ scorecards, they have the opportunity to refine their presentation in each phase. “They’re working on their props right now from the state competition,” Fox said. “We have three state champions here.”
The Long Beach students secured three state titles in two challenges, with four of their teams qualifying for the world finals. “The middle school kids took third place for Problem 3 and first place for Problem 2,” Fox said. “And we had first place for elementary for both.”
One of Long Beach’s Division 1 teams answered Problem 2 by voyaging to the underwater city of Atlantis in search of a sundial which could reverse melting ice caps, but were mistakenly transported to a hotel and casino. Long Beach’s Division 2 team responded to the same problem with a bachelorette party’s detour to the land of the dead.
One underlying principle with every problem is the need for communication among team members, cooperation and even a degree of persuasive arguing. “I like to see the arguing,” MacConnell said. “Because when we get older, it’s not always our way. We’re not working independently here. We’re working within a group. To be able to figure out conflicts and have resolutions, to have the end goal of state titles and world titles appearances, that’s the coolest thing.”
Will Cohen, a Lido Elementary fourth-grader, summed up the team-building lessons succinctly. “I learned you can always be friends with people even if you don’t know them,” he said. “You just have to get used to them.”
The team’s next step is to refine their projects before the world finals kick off next month on the Iowa State campus in Ames. Registration begins on May 26, with opening ceremonies the following day and competition taking place May 28 to 30. The Long Beach School District is covering registration fees for the 28 competitors, with fundraising events throughout the year helping to further offset the cost of flights and hotels for students, parents and coaches.
A global field of competitors is expected to send nearly 50 teams in each division — for each problem — leading to a stadium packed with thousands of curious, creative minds presenting innovative solutions to abstract scenarios.
