Pictured are Odyssey members Noah Sheff, Lee Graft, Landry Hart, Emily McCorkle, Rebecca Jones, Shaw Pinnell, Sara Beth Defenbau and parent volunteer Dina McCorkle.

Southland Academy is proud to have an Odyssey of the Mind team. The team of fourth and fifth graders is led by parent volunteer, Abby Sheff, mother to fifth grader Noah and K3 student Nate.

Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition involving students from kindergarten through college. Team members work together to solve a predefined problem (the long-term problem) and present their solution of the problem at a competition. The team must also participate in the spontaneous portion of the competition by generating solutions to a problem in which they have not seen before. While the long-term problem solution often takes many months to complete and involves various elements of theatrical performance, construction and design, the spontaneous portion occurs the day of the competition.

On Saturday, January 28, 2017, Southland's Odyssey team met with other Sumter County Odyssey teams to participate in a spontaneous practice competition. The Southland team will attend competition in Hawkinsville, GA, on February 25, 2017.