Homework and Updates!

Hi all!

Sorry for the long periods of time between posts, as some of you may know, this is my last course-taking semester at NC State and it was a whirlwind.  Next semester I will begin my student teaching at a nearby school.  Hopefully I will have a little more time to keep this blog updated!

Anyway, we have been making huge strides this year and I'm very excited for what next year holds! Over the past several weeks we have talked extensively about SCAMPER and creative thinking skills, we have practiced a wide variety of spontaneous problems as well as have begun working on our long term problem: Silent Movie!  The students have already began brainstorming a villainous character that will play a major role within their performance.  As you may already know, students are assigned two pieces of homework over break.

The First Assignment: Watch silent movies for inspiration!
We showed a snippet of a silent movie at our last practice and the kids loved it! I know they are very excited to have movies as homework.  If you are struggling to find movies (Netflix), there are a lot of really great short silent movie clips on Youtube also.

Second Assignment: Compile 'trash/recyclable' materials to bring in
With each problem that students can solve, there is a max budget.  Ours, for Silent Movie, is $135.  This means that anything that is bought for the completion of the problem has to have a receipt and the team has to document it.  That being said, there are a couple of exceptions.  For instance, there is a list of items that it is assumed any team could easily obtain from a school that are assigned a value, such as desks, chairs, etc.  Many of these items are assigned a value of $10 or less.  Another exception to our budget is exempted items.  One of the biggest items on the exempted list is trash or recyclable items - any items that the team can transform into something else.  Since we are just getting started and the holidays are a great time to find large pieces of cardboard and other miscellaneous items, I thought it would be a great idea to have the team start collecting these items for when we actually start constructing.

A quick note about Outside Assistance:
As you may or may not know, Odyssey of the Mind is a kid-run program.  That being said, I coach the team in learning and developing creative thinking skills, critical thinking skills, arts-dependent skills.  I am not guiding the team in their solution of the problem, I merely help them think through all their options.  Many of the team members were very inspired by the silent films we watched in our last meeting and may wish to start developing characters or prototypes of props/sets.  This is ok! In fact, it's awesome!  However, parents cannot help them in any way.  Yes parents, you may help them by obtaining materials (that they ask for), however you cannot guide their thinking in any way!

I don't want to scare any parents from working on this with your child! You are more than encouraged to have a brainstorming session with them! But, when your child starts drawing/sketching/writing/building you have to sit on your hands and let them do it!

Enjoy your break!

Hitting the Ground Running: Piggy Backing

BRAINSTORMING!

The most used skill in Odyssey of the Mind.

This week, we started brainstorming about brainstorming.  Being able to produce creative, productive ideas from brainstorms sessions is such an important task within this OM season; it's almost all we do! To kick us off on this brainstorming meeting, we started with a spontaneous that required them to use the skill piggy backing (a sub skill within brainstorming). Piggy backing is when you use one of your teammate's ideas to help formulate your own.  In the spontaneous problem the team was tasked to name something heavier than the what the person in front of them said, with the first person naming something heavier than a brick.  During the first round of this problem, they struggled a little bit.  While they didn't have the issue of not listening to one another, they listed heavier items way to fast.

Ex: A brick, a cement block, an elephant, a ship, all the water in the ocean, the earth, the universe...

After completing the spontaneous problem we discussed the ideas of piggy backing and brainstorming in general, we continued brainstorming rules for brainstorming.  Brainstorming is a delicate process; students need to feel safe to come up with as many ideas as possible.

After discussing the rules of brainstorming, I asked the team to revisit the spontaneous problem and think of ways that they could be more successful, specifically using the piggy backing strategy.  The team discussed their strategy and tried the problem again.  They did significantly better after having the ability to discuss it.

Lastly, we did one final brainstorm session on how we, as a team, can be successful. As mentioned earlier, this is important as we want to be as successful as we can be.  We have the unique ability to be able to participate in the competition this year and would love to see how well we can do this year.

Homework:
Students took home two pieces of paper: Video/Photo Release and the Student Team Member Contract.  The Video/Photo Release is just for this blog.  As we continue working, I love to take pictures of the team doing their thing.  As they are minors, I don't want to put these photos/videos online without your consent.
The Team Member Contract is a very basic contract given to us from the Odyssey of the Mind Program.  Please take time to review this before signing it.

Students: please bring these two forms back at the next practice.

LASTLY,
Students please fill out this short survey by next practice!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

A New Year, A New Team

Its that time again...

Time for a new OM team!

Wednesday was our first practice! I am so excited after seeing familiar faces as well as meeting new members.  (Some of you have really had a growth spurt over the summer!) 

First practice went very well.  It will be a little more difficult at the beginning as we have a mix of old and new members, however I am confident that we will be able to get the members up to speed in no time.  At our first practice, we attempted a Spontaneous problem, did a creativity test, filled out a few "Getting to Know You" activities, and began discussing, very generally, what Odyssey of the Mind entails.  

The creativity test we did was the "Incomplete Figure" test.  This test measures a couple of various creative thinking skills such as flexibility, originality, fluency, and elaboration, all of which are very important skills to have and develop through the Odyssey of the Mind program.  As you can see through the students and Mrs. K's incomplete figures, we definitely have several highly creative people on this team!

HOMEWORK!

Please pick two of your favorite problems to work on and perform for OM.  We will have a vote for our problem soon. You can these problem synopses as well as additional information on the Odyssey of the Mind website. 

Problem 1: Runaway 'Train'

The team’s problem is to design, build and operate one or more vehicles that will travel on tracks and make stops at different stations without touching the floor. While traveling between stations, the vehicles must overcome obstacles —moving uphill, towing something, and more. The theme of the performance will explain the vehicle’s difficulties on the track and will include a ‘conductor’ character. Once the vehicle reaches its final destination it will display a flag or banner during a victory lap!

Problem 2: Experiencing Technical Difficulties 

The problem is to design, build, and demonstrate various devices that complete specific tasks. The team will create a theme where technical failures must be resolved through completing the tasks. There will be a list of tasks to choose from including ring a bell, change the wording on something, sound an alarm, move an object, etc. There will also be a mysterious engineer character. Of course, there’s a twist — all of the devices must be powered by rubber bands!

Problem 3: Pandora's Box

In this classics problem, teams will put a video game spin on the story of Pandora’s Box. A gamer character will take on this multi-level game inspired by the Greek myth. The game will include a prologue that depicts the original story of Pandora’s Box, three characters representing different evils that escaped the box, and a power meter that represents the gamer character’s health. To beat the game, the player will advance to the final level where it will release hope into the world.

Problem 4: Lose Your Marbles

This problem requires teams to design, build, and test a structure, made only of balsa wood and glue, that will balance and support as much weight as possible. The structure will also hold five marbles that will be released during weight placement as a result of a team-created device removing a piece of the structure. After the crusher board and one additional weight are placed on top of the structure, the first marble will be released. After the next weight is supported, the team will use its device to release another marble, and so on. The team will incorporate weight placement and “losing your marbles” into the theme of the performance.

Problem 5: Silent Movie

Lights, camera...action! In this problem teams will create and present a performance depicting a Director character that produces and presents a silent movie featuring a humorous villain character that commits three silly acts of “villainy”. Characters that are in the movie may not speak as part of the presentation of the movie. Instead, like classic silent films, the team will use music played on a team-created instrument and creatively displayed subtitles to convey its story to the audience and judges. Also, teams will use a signal to indicate when the movie begins and ends. 

The Script

THE SCRIPT

Rough Plan:

·      Surfing

·      Eaten by a whale

·      Haunted things happen in the whale belly

·      Blow out of blowhole and land on island

·      Party on island

Surfer 1: Emily K.

Surfer 2: O

Narrator: Emily O.

Old Man Bob: P

Agiler Fish: K

Mermaid: T

Special Effects/Party Dancer: C

Surfing in ocean

Emily O: Surfer 1 and surfer 2 were surfing at Myrtle Beach on a nice, sunny day.

Emily K: Whoa this is awesome man!

O: Have you ever been surfing before?

Emily K: Uhh sure?! (looking like he is lying)

Emily O: He has to be lying, look at his face!

Emily K: Nu uh! I totally got this!

Emily K looks away and crashes/falls off surfboard

O: *sigh*  Come on man!

O jumps after Emily K leaving both surfboards behind.

Emily K and O are swimming underwater

Narrator: Surfer 1 and Surfer 2 are now struggling to swim underwater thanks to surfer 1’s ”accident”.

O: Look at all the pretty fish out there!

Emily K: Why is that one fish getting bigger?!

Emily O: They begin to swim towards the pretty fish that was getting bigger.  Little did they know, they were swimming towards a whale.

Dun dun dunnnnnn!!(C)

O: Oh no! We’re in trouble!

Emily K: BIG TROUBLE!

Emily K. and Omee scream as they get eaten by a whale.

Emily O: Surfer 1 should have seriously gotten surfing lessons because now they are trapped in a whale. 

Inside whale belly

O: What do we do now!?!  You crashed and now look where we are!

Emily K: Well you shouldn’t have taken me out surfing in the first place!

Emily O: It wasn’t surfer 2’s fault, if surfer 1 would have told the truth and not have gone surfing they wouldn’t be stuck in the whales belly in the first place!

Emily K (to audience): Don’t listen to him/her! I was perfect!

O: Ok would you please stop arguing so we can figure out how to get out of here!

First illusion= floating fish bones

Emily O: Surfer 1 and 2 were walking around the belly until they saw some floating fish bones near by.

O: Ew! That is soooooooo disgusting!

Emily K: Yeah that is totes gross! How long has that even been here? YUCK!

Emily O: It’s leftovers! Now surfer 1 and 2 kept walking around until they found Old Man Bob, the Zombie of the whale belly.

Old Man Bob walks out

O: Who are you?

Old Man Bob (P) (southern accent): Howdy! My name is Old Man Bob, and I’ve been here for over 1000 years. *in scary voice And you’ll never ever ever find your way out!! Mwahahaha!

Emily K: *gags, Dude you need a shower!

O: Yeah, you smell disgusting!!

P: You know, that’s not a bad idea, I’ve been thinking about that showering thing…with a tub and pipe and water and stuff…

A angler fish swims up behind the group.

P: *screams! Ahh a angler fish!!! *runs away

Surfers turn around and see the angler fish

O: That thing seriously needs to brush it’s teeth!

Emily K: Yeah, there’s somethings that are unknown to science in there!

Emily O: The PL got so mad at what the surfers said, that he angrily swam away.  As the angler fish swam away, a mermaid sneaks up behind the surfers.

Mermaid (T): Sneaks and yells BOO!

Emily K: Oh my gosh, that outfit is so ugly and gross!!

O: Well she’s not that ugly Steps forward toward mermaid She’s just gross!

Emily O: The whale suddenly started making a really weird sound *C makes whale sound * and the surfers are blown out of the whale’s blow hole.

Surfers jump over part of set and land in disco party scene

Emily and O: What is going on!?

P DJ: It’s a party!

Everyone comes on to scene dancing

P DJ: It’s party…

Everyone: TIME!

END

We're Making Progress!

Sorry for the delay everyone! As my college semester winds down, I have been swamped with projects.  HOWEVER, here is an update on the great work that the OMers have been doing.

SPONTANEOUS

To start every meeting, we practice at least one spontaneous problem.  I find it really gets the kids focused and their creative minds going as we transition into working on our solution.  The past few weeks we have been working with the SCAMPER model to help us think more creatively.  Many OMers have really latched on to this idea and are coming up with some really great spontaneous answers.  The past two weeks, I have been challenging them to not only think creatively as an individual, but also as a team.  For instance, in the verbal spontaneous problems, if someone says a really creative answer, how can you use that answer to inspire you to say an equally or more creative response.  I've also been introducing more hands-on problems for the team to tackle.  While the hands-on problems are new for them, it does force them to start thinking about each others ideas and building off each other.

THE NOT-SO-HAUNTED-HOUSE

Brainstorming the Set

I am very proud to say that over the course of the past 2-3 weeks, the team has made MAJOR strides in completing a solution.  Just last week, the team decided on a movable set piece, several illusions to be included in the set, finished writing the script, and assigned roles to the script!  They have been working so hard! To continue this pace, I have been encouraging the team to gather as much cardboard as we can through cheap, dumpster diving methods.  I hope we will have enough by next week to put the set together and start discussing painting options.  Additionally, since they have finished the skit, I want to start running through their lines as often as possible.  For future weeks, I am going to replace spontaneous practice with rehearsal of lines.

How do we make a whale?

I am reaching out to Mr. Douglas in hopes of letting the team perform their solution to at least the fourth grade, if not the entire school.  He seems very eager to make this happen, however, nothing definitive has been made.  However, I feel confident that if the team is willing to stay focused these next few weeks, they will be able to put together a really great performance.

Designing our Solution

This week the students are working very hard in trying to get some decisions made so that we can move on to working on the actual script and scenery (which is the fun part!). Over the past couple of weeks we have been brainstorming potential characters, settings, and reactions to our "haunted house". Last week we came to the conclusion that we were going to try to focus on the reaction "grossed out".  I think this might change as we continue developing our plot, but we'll see what the kids come up with.

To kick off our practice, we started with a simple verbal spontaneous problem.  The team did fairly well working with it.  Several students are really starting to use the SCAMPER technique as well as build off of what the students in front of them said.  The second part is critical, especially as some students start answering with high creative or humorous answers every time!  If my OMers who struggling to say something creative every time can begin to shift their thinking based on what someone in front of them said, I think their ability to give consistently creative answers will increase.  After discussing this idea with the team we re-did the same spontaneous problem.  Using this technique in conjunction with SCAMPER the team was able to double their score! I think by seeing the "payoff" from not only thinking creatively on an individual level, but also as a team, their spontaneous score can really improve.

Once we started working on our longterm problem, the team made a lot of good strides and really started thinking creatively! As a group, we decided that our basic plot was going to be some characters (we haven't completely decided who yet) were going to start off by surfing in the ocean.  As they are surfing, they wreck and end up getting eaten by a whale.  Inside the whale belly is where our "haunted house is going to occur.  Our surprise ending is going to consistent of the characters who were trapped in the whale belly to get shot out of the blow hole and land on an island where a party is taking place.

I personally love their base story so far.  I think the idea of having the "haunted house" take place inside the belly of a whale is genius and it lends the kids lots of different "haunted" things that could take place.  During this practice we also watched a couple of the performances from the teams that competed in the competition.  I can tell that the students really looked critically at each of the skits and tweaked what they saw to go into their own skit.  I'm really excited to see what they come up with once we start script writing and set designing!

Day 6- Viewing the Competition!

Sorry for the delayed post! I was having technical difficulties with uploading the videos to the blog so I had to wait until I could meet with our Media Specialist at State (we've been off a week for spring break) 

I have been so busy these past few weeks that I have really gotten behind in updating this blog for those of you who have been checking! First and foremost several of my OMers and their families joined me to enjoy some of the solutions performed at this years regional tournament.  Since the team has been working on Problem 2- The Not-So-Haunted House, I figured this would be the perfect place to start watching.  By accident, we ended up watching a middle school solution for Problem 2 at the beginning of the day, however, I thought it was a good performance to show the team members what they could strive for.  The rest of the day we spent watching elementary solutions to Problem 2.  I've uploaded a couple of solutions that we watched throughout the day.  If you are viewing them, try to see if you can pick out the different components that are listed in the requirements!

Day 4- Brainstorming and Decision Making

This week, my little OMers put in a lot of good work.  As always, we started the session with some Spontaneous practice with emphasis on SCAMPER.  Lately, we've been practicing a lot Verbal Spontaneous Problems (mostly because they are short and concise) and the kids seem to be really getting a hang of it.  The two problems we focused on today involved explaining why the Leaning Tower of Pisa was leaning and listing signs and their "directions".  During Spontaneous problems, students are given anywhere from one to two minutes of 'think time' (usually just silent, sometimes can talk with group members) with two to four minutes to respond.  Responses are also graded in a variety of ways.  Usually, common answers receive one point while creative answers receive 3 points.  Some questions offer highly creative/ humorous points which are 5 points per response.  Both questions the students did today offered all three levels and I am very proud to say that on both questions we averaged half common answers and half creative/highly creative!  Let me say that again,

HALF OF THE RESPONSES GIVEN SCORED AS EITHER CREATIVE OR HIGHLY CREATIVE!

That's a big deal!  Not only have the students really improved quickly, but they have been really developing some serious creative thinking skills.  In the sign question, Eminem-ily* kicked off the round with a highly creative answer!  Everybody is really thinking about their answers so they can get as many points as they can.

After Spontaneous, we went to the daunting task of deciding various pieces of our solution.  Last week, the kids had begun to narrow down their lists of possible characters, setting, and reactions to the "frightening haunted house".  Today, I wanted our goal to be decided our reaction.  The kids voted on the list we had brainstormed using the same basic scoring technique that is used for Spontaneous problems (1pt for common reaction, 2pts for creative reactions, and 3pts for highly creative reactions).  The team narrowed it down to two possibilities before deciding to take a vote.  After voting, it was three in favor in one and 4 in favor of the other.  While that's not technically a gridlock, I decided it was probably best to have each side "make their case" to help the kids decided more unanimously.  Two kids performed a short skit for their side, while two other kids performed their short skit for their side.  The three neutral students were left to discuss which mini-performance could work for our solution.  Needless to say, time was running out and the students were still discussing.  I called another vote that would stand as final.  Unfortunately, the results were the same- four for one reaction and 3 for the other.  However, we got something decided which helps moves us forward and provides us with a starting point for next week!

*Eminem-ily is a nickname since I have two Emilys!

Day 3- Brainstorming for Problem 2: The Not-So-Haunted House

So great to be back! It's been almost two weeks due to crazy snow-apocalypes that have canceled school, which, of course, included OM.

To kick off this week's meeting we did two spontaneous problems.  Since the Art Room hosts carpool students immediately after school, we start the first 15 minutes in the library.  I think I'm going to start making this time, Spontaneous time since its really too short to accomplish anything else. We did two verbal problems today.  The first problem we did involved using the word "catch" as creative as they could.  On this problem, 5 points were awarded for creative and humorous answers and only 1 point was award for common answers.

THEY KILLED IT!!

Over half of the answers they gave were scored as creative or humorous! They gave answers such as "What's the catch", "Ketchup", "Catching Fire".   It was fantastic! 

And then we went to the other problem...

The second problem required the team to use some new skills.  First, it required the team to discuss ideas during the think time (which is new, usually they just think silently) and it required them to give "alternative endings" to the classic tale of Little Red Riding Hood, which are length-er responses than they are used to giving.  This team has so many great ideas, however, they haven't mastered how to be concise in their thoughts and let each other have turns to speak.  Additionally, they haven't mastered the idea of "feeding off each other".  I think if we can work on the listening and "feeding off" skills, this team will do really well in the future.

As we moved into the Art Room, we began brainstorming ideas for solving The Not-So-Haunted House long-term problem.  First, we brainstormed characteristics that make a performance enjoyable or entertaining to us.  From there we began to brainstorm possible characters, settings, and reactions (to the frightenings of the Haunted House) that could be used in the solutions.  While some of the ideas were commonplace, I think the team got a couple of really solid ideas.  The trick is going to developing these ideas into something they could use.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how well the students worked and brainstormed together.  I think next week we will begin to dive more deeply into developing a story-line for this problem!

Day 2- SCAMPER and BrainStorming

After a LONG break since our first meeting (early release followed by a snow day), I finally got to be reunited with my OM kids!  To kick off this meeting, we created an OM contract.  Since our first meeting was just meant to have fun and get to know one another, this meeting I wanted to create a little more structure and flow.  As a team we created rules/ Dos and Don'ts that the team is supposed to follow at every meeting.  Some of the rules that the group came up with were "school-like" such as "be respectful", however some of the rules that they came up with were more OM-oriented such as "think outside of the box!"  After creating 15 rules, we all signed the contract, meaning that we read and understood all of the rules in the contract.

After the contract we dove right into some Spontaneous practice.  First, we practiced a verbal Spontaneous problem.  The problem read: Tell how you would get a wooly mammoth out of the hole. For example, you could say, " I would use a piece of rope and pull it out of the hole."  For this problem, the answers received 1 point for common answers, 3 for creative, and 5 for highly creative answers.  The students really enjoy the Spontaneous problems and gave some really interesting solutions.  Some of the more creative answers that were give were: Fill up the hole with water and let the wooly mammoth float out of the hole, bring an attractive lady-mammoth and the wooly mammoth will run out of the hole, and a play on the word hole/whole- cut the whole in half, then you would only have a half and no whole for the mammoth to be stuck in.

The kids came up with some creative answers - they are naturally creative!  However, there are some techniques that I would like to teach the students to help guide their thinking during the think-time that they are giving before having to answer.  Today, we went over the acronym SCAMPER, an idea-spurring trick to generate ideas or improve objects.  Each letter in the acronym can help students think of creative solutions to many problems.

After exploring several ways we could use each letter to help us think more creatively, we tried another verbal Spontaneous problem.  The problem we did read: We all enjoy reading about animals that are "make believe," such as the "Push-Me Pull-You" in Dr. Doolittle. Your problem is to pretend you could add something to an existing animal to make a new animal. Tell what you would add to which animal and why. For example, you could say "I would give my dog a lion’s roar, so he would be a better watchdog."

The students struggled with this one more than the first Spontaneous problem, which surprised me at first, however I realized that they were trying so hard to us SCAMPER in their thought process that it blocked their natural creativity juices from flowing.  I think as long as we keep incorporating SCAMPER into all of our Spontaneous practice, the students will start to incorporate it more naturally into their thinking, bumping up the creativity in their answers drastically.

At the end of practice today, I read the Long Term Style synopses for each of the available problems.  While I read all five problems, I told the students that for the next couple of weeks we would only be focusing of the performance problems; Seeing is Believing, The Not-So-Haunted House, and It's How We Rule.  I'm really looking forward to diving into these Long Term problems with more depth as I think the students are ready to brainstorm and think of some really creative solutions!

Day 1 - Meeting the Minds!

Today was the first day of my Odyssey of the Mind (OM) group.  Unfortunately, this group will not be competing in the OM competition in March, however, we will continue meeting to practice and prepare for next year!  I think by trying to stay together as a group and get some good practice in, this team will be unstoppable next year!


To kick off the start of Odyssey of the Mind in Dillard Drive Elementary School, I started with a "Get to Know You" worksheet for all the kids to fill out as well as myself and my co-coach Ms. Brink.  I loved doing these worksheets as I can add any kind of crazy question that I want! (And the kids love the crazy questions!)  After introducing ourselves to one another, I had the group do a team building activity.  I divided the group up - boys vs. girls - and gave each group a bag of miniature marshmallows and a packet of bendy straws.  I gave them about 3 minutes to talk with their group, do some planning, before they were allowed to build.  Then, I gave the students 10 minutes to try and build the tallest tower with just a bag of marshmallows and bendy straws.  I was great to see how the students worked together to build their towers.  While neither tower was very successful, I think the students gained some valuable skills in teamwork.

After introducing ourselves and playing with marshmallows and bendy straws, we dove right into OM material- Long Term Style and Spontaneous!  First, to introduce the students to the Style portion of OM I made two lists of verbs and adverbs.  The students had to pick two numbers and act out the coordinating actions.  My list included:

1. Sing           1. Happily

2. Skip           2. Awkwardly

3. Talk           3. Importantly

4. Run           4. Loudly

5. Dance        5. Fast

6. Crawl        6. Quietly

7. Laugh       7. Sleepy

8. Jump         8. Silly

9. Stretch       9. Scary

10. Slide      10. Slowly

I choose this activity to put the students on the spot, to encourage them to think on their feet.  After the first two brave students, we really seemed to enjoy the activity.  And the students thought it was HILARIOUS!  We did several combinations and the students acted them out as best as the could as the other students burst with laughter.  After doing a few rounds of combinations with all the students, I explained that this idea of acting out random things in front of people is a large part of the Style portion of the OM experience, at least for the performance problems.  Since I am most comfortable coaching the performance problems, and the students seemed to really enjoy being silly in front of one another, I think I am going to focus on only the Performance problems from here on out.  After explaining I then turned our focus to the Spontaneous portion. 

To introduce the Spontaneous portion of OM I gave the children four creativity test with two minutes to complete as much as they could on each task.  The first task was on riddles.  I gave each child a sheet with five different riddles on it and asked them to solve/answer as many as they could.  I gave them riddles because generally, riddles are all about logic.  Riddles also measure a person's convergent thinking, the ability to come up with a single, well-established answer to a problem.  This is an important skill to have, especially in the Spontaneous portion.  Since I competed, some of the rules of Spontaneous have changed, included the number of answers one can give.  Judges now control the number of answers given in some problems by giving the students a certain number of marbles; each time they propose a solution to a problem, the student has to relinquish a marble until they are all out.  This requires students to come up with the best and most creative answers as they can.  The students did really well!  I tricked a couple of them, but, some of the riddles were really tough! But I'm glad the students kept trying and none of them gave up.

The second task I had the students complete was the hardest creativity test that I gave the students.  It was on remote associations.  Basically, the way this task works is there are three words given that are all connected by a fourth word.  The trick is to come up with that fourth word that connects all the previous words together.  The example I gave to the students was: Falling - Movie - Dust.  The fourth word in this example would be "star", as in "falling star", "movie star", and "star dust".  Similarly to riddles, you are looking for one right answer to complete the association.  Additionally, many students can only solve these types of problems with just a 'flash of insight'.  I was very surprised with how well many of the students did with this problem!  I would consider solving remote associations very challenging for most people, however several students were able to harness their 'flash of insight' and solve several of the problems- a very important skill for successful OM teams.

The third task I had the students complete was the similarities and differences creativity test.  I like this test because it really has the students think outside of the box.  The question I asked was for the students to list as many similarities and differences as they could for a cat and a lion.  At first, the children began to list very common similarities and differences between the two animals, however some students began to break the functional fixedness of their thinking and list some creative answers.  In contrast to the last two creativity tests, this test was designed so that students would come up with as many responses as they could.  While it is important for students to give well thought-out answers, it's
also important that students generate as many answers in their head as they can during their think time to use as a back up in case one of their team mates 'steal' their answer.

The last task I had the students complete was my favorite creativity test - the Incomplete Figure creativity test.  This test is basically a blank, incomplete figure and students are asked to draw the rest of the figure.  This test almost always generates creative answers; its almost impossible to give a not creative answer.  The Incomplete Figure
test was originally developed in the 60's and was apart of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking and was designed as a creative alternative for IQ testing.  I really just enjoy this type of test, it really gets kids thinking in a creative manner, whether they mean to or not.

Overall, I felt it was a great first day! I loved meeting the kids and seeing their brains work in ways they aren't used to!