WINGATE – Students from a local middle and elementary school have qualified with hundreds of other teams throughout the world to participate in the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals next month.

Teams from Torrence Creek Elementary School and Lake Norman Charter Middle School earned invitations at the Odyssey of the Mind state finals March 31 at Wingate University. To qualify for the world tournament, which takes place May 23 to 26 at Iowa State University, teams must finish first or second in their divisions.

About 35 teams from North Carolina advanced to the world tournament.

Odyssey of the Mind allows students to work together to find solutions to predefined problems, which they present to judges at the competition, and also create spontaneous solutions to problems they have not been given in advance.