Help this student STEM team raise $10K to go to the world finals

The Disney princesses are battling it out to win Prince Charming’s heart — all during a driver’s test.

That was the winning scenario that a team of Masterman Middle School students developed for Odyssey of the Mind, a design problem-solving competition for students. The students on team “Rat Patootie” built the vehicles for the competition, including a hover scooter powered by two battery-operated leaf blowers. They won first place at the state competition and are headed to the world finals in Iowa, but first they need to raise $10,000 to get there.

Seventh graders Abigail Leighton, Tillie Donover and Rose Weinbaum, who are part of team Rat Patootie, helped start Odyssey of the Mind at Masterman three years ago. Now there are three teams, one of which practiced this year at University City makerspace Department of Making + Doing.

Masterman doesn’t fund any extracurriculars, so parents, teachers and students must find ways to back their programs, said Odyssey of the Mind parent coordinator Tina Kluetmeier. That’s why they’ve launched the crowdfunding campaign and are also hosting bake sales and other fundraising events.