Wishing you were as creative as when you were a kid?

Had the opportunity to judge an Odyssey of the Mind competition a few weeks ago. This is a creativity competition for school-age kids. The image is from the World meet 2007.

Odyssey of the Mind was created by Dr. C. Samuel Micklus, Professor Emeritus at Rowan University in New Jersey. In 1978, 28 New Jersey schools participated in the very first creative problem-solving competition ever. Dr. Sam still develops all problems for the program, along with his son, Sammy, President of CCI.

Imagine if your next challenge was to demonstrate a new theory of how the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic era became extinct. And you had to show the theory in eight minutes, including set up. And there had to be one of your team members dressed as an actual dinosaur from the era, and a facsimile of that same dinosaur needed to be part of the demonstration. And you had to use a elements of sound, lighting and/or scenery to show the event that led to the extinction. Did you catch the part about doing this all in eight minutes? By the way, you will be competing with hundreds of other kids your age- from your first Regional contest, through the State competition, then to the World meet. And you will only have $145 to spend and no adults can assist you except one who can only act as a coach and is not allowed to supply any of the creative thought to the demonstration.

Unfortunately, I am not allowed to share what any of the groups presented since the competition continues for the next few months. For now, check out the site and wish you had the opportunity to do this back before people told you creativity wouldn’t pay the bills. Or sign up to be a judge. It is a whole lot of whole-headed fun.