The gifts and talents of St. Augustine of Canterbury School’s middle school students were on full display as three of the school’s competitive STEAM teams won trophies at their respective state and national tournaments. Leading the way was the 8th Grade Odyssey of the Mind team, who took the State Championship in Division II on the problem “Opposites Distract” at the New Jersey State Finals in Ewing, NJ. Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides opportunities for students from kindergarten through college to use creativity and ingenuity to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. In this problem, the team was challenged to present a performance about a sneaky character that distracts others by luring them into silly arguments - presented in different dramatic styles - while trying to take control of anything the team wishes. In the end, the team realizes that they have been tricked into being distracted and catches the character before it can take control. The students got a chance to show off their problem solving skills as well as their writing and artistic talents on their way to earning the first place trophy and qualifying for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at Michigan State University in May. St. Augustine’s 7th Grade Odyssey of the Mind team also had a successful State Finals, as they earned Second Place in Division II on the problem “OMER to the Rescue, Again.” Here, the students were asked to design a vehicle that can be assembled from parts that would fit into a suitcase so that “OMER” - Odyssey of the Mind’s raccoon-like mascot - and his trusty Sidekick can ride it and use it in different ways “save the day” at various locations. Between attempts, the “OMER-mobile” is disassembled, put back into the suitcase, and then reassembled in the new location. The performance ends with a hero’s parade for OMER and his fantastic vehicle. This problem highlighted the students’ engineering skills, as they needed to make sure that their OMER-mobile could be assembled into a functional vehicle, actually ridden, and disassembled repeatedly - all while still being able to fit into a suitcase. The team’s Second Place result also earns them a spot in the Odyssey World Finals alongside their 8th Grade classmates. Finally, moving to the national stage, the “Cocoa Tribe” from St. Augustine School won 3rd Place at the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest National Finals in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The team used all of their creativity and engineering skills to create a jungle exploration-themed machine, built predominantly using repurposed common household items, that took 32 steps to drop a chocolate coin into a treasure chest-shaped bank. The students also had to perform a skit, complete with character costumes, that told the story of their machine in a creative and humorous way. After their success at this year’s National Finals, the team is already looking ahead to next year’s challenge: a Rube Goldberg machine that turns off a light.