A British archaeological team had been credited with uncovering the enigmatic Mohenjo-Daro seals - until a group of Magee Middle School students revealed Saturday that the discovery was actually made by a couple of giant germs playing hopscotch.
The Magee team, assembled for the regional Odyssey of the Mind competition at Canyon del Oro High School, didn't simply make the mock announcement. The students performed it, in the guise of a black-and-white silent movie.
They couldn't acquire the original seals, which depict the earliest writings found in the Indus Valley. Those are in the British Museum.
Eighth-grader Josephine Bahe, 13, fired up some replicas in a kiln, in addition to making the backdrops for the group's presentation and playing a giant H1N1 virus in the skit.
Annette Ricci, a 14-year-old eighth-grader with two years' of piano training, composed original music for the first part of the skit and adapted Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" for the second part, which chronicled the future discovery of the crystal globe used to usher in the New Year in Manhattan's Times Square.
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That ball, according to the students' script, had been thrown into the sea by panicked New Yorkers who thought the act might ward off the end of the world as the dreaded year 2012 approached.
Magee's team included Michaela Davenport, 13, as British archaeologist John Marshall; Lauren Boswell, 13, as his niece Elizabeth; Emery Herbert, 13, as the announcer; and Zoe Ruehl, 14, who played the rhinovirus, in addition to playing viola.
The entire team collaborated on researching and writing the script and the lyrics to the songs that went with it. They all performed, on stage and off - wildly, exuberantly, tirelessly. And then they devoured Cheetos.
They were matched in enthusiasm and good cheer by 48 other teams from area elementary, middle and high schools. Saturday's first- and second-place winners will represent their schools at state finals and, if they advance, at the international championship of Odyssey of the Mind, held this year at Michigan State University in May.
In the competition, the students are asked to apply their ingenuity and creativity to one of five problems. Projects range from flying airplanes to making balsa wood structures that can bear weight to dressing as vegetables and explaining their nutritional qualities. Students also must spontaneously solve a problem that is kept secret until the competition.
The exercise, said Kim Boswell-Jensen, who is Lauren's mom, "does really good things for the kids."
"They have to learn how to solve problems, how to build things from nothing. They carry these lessons with them for the rest of their lives."
Lauren's brother Travis, now a junior at University High, went to the international finals when he was at Magee, where coach Marjorie Letson mentors champion teams year after year.
"The biggest thing I learned," said Travis, "was to be more outward and not care what people think about you."
That's the kind of lesson that will get you through some adolescent angst.
And the winners are...
The following teams qualified for the state Odyssey of the Mind competition by placing first or second in one of six categories in Saturday's regional contest. Categories are listed in bold.
Nature Trail'R
Ironwood Elementary
Keeling Elementary
Magee Middle School
Cross Middle School
Canyon del Oro High School
Gift of Flight
Painted Sky Elementary
Ironwood Elementary
Magee Middle School
Catalina Foothills Community Schools
Sonoran Science Academy
Discovered Treasures
Coronado K-8
Mesa Verde Elementary
Magee Middle School
Arizona Virtual Academy
Column Structure
Prince Elementary
Keeling Elementary
Magee Middle School
Amphitheater Middle
Food Court
Ironwood Elementary
Walker Elementary
Magee Middle School
Townsend Middle School
Canyon del Oro High
Surprise Party
Results not available.
Contact reporter Tom Beal at 573-4158 or tbeal@azstarnet.com
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