in that first contest. The rest is a story
neither Micklus nor Gourley could
have anticipated,

“We were thinking of it just asa
one-time thing,” Micklus laughs. “But
the next thing we knew, “The New
York Times’ appeared to cover the
event, and did a nice write-up. Arthur
Lipper of the Lipper Foundation
read the article, and mailed usa check
for $2000 to try to promote the con-
test beyond the New Jersey arca. By
1979, 200 schools were participating,
and since then, we've grown to ap-
proximately 2000 members.”

Micklus and Gourley still run the
program in the “spare” time they find
outside their full-time jobs as educa-
tors. Each OM member school pays
$65 a year in dues, which along with
continued support from the op per
Foundation covers ihe cost of OM's
printed materials, phone bills, quar-
terly newsletter, and World Finals
competition, (Micklus and Gourle
can be reached at: OM, PO. Box 27,
Glassboro, NJ. 080628; (609) 88!-
1603.)

Each member s hool forms a com-
petitive “creative problem-solving
team"—an extracurricular acifvity
that, like varsity sports, requires disci-
pline, hard work, cooperation, and
regular practice sessions. “We believe
that mental games can be played with
the same enthusiasm and competitive
spirit as physical games and that the
“amind, like che body, can be trained
through practice and exercise to
reach its fullest potential,” Micklus ex-
plains,

‘Teams spend the year working on
four long-range problems devised by
Micklus and Gourley. While prob-
leins vary from year to year, and the
challenges are diflerent for different
age groups, all the problems demand

creative solutions Within specific de-
sign requirements. and monctary tim-
itations.

One of this year’s enginecring-
related problems, for example, 1s
for students ta design a “Leonardo
daVinci Spring Car"—a vehicte cost-
ing less than $45 that is powered only
by springs and is able 10 navigate a
course, stop, and back up “with a rea-
sonable amount of precision.” During
the car's journey around a set course,
students must enter a “time machine”
and transform their spring-driven
vehicles from a IGth-century to a
20th-century design.

Another of this year's long-range
problems is for students to design a
Structure weighing a maximum of
five-cighths of an ounce, and con-
structed of eight strips of Ye" x Ye x
46” balsa wood. The structures are
judged on their ability to support
weight and their ability to withstand
the onslaugh: ofa “wrecking bali"—a
billiard ball rolled down an inclined
track to strike the structure once a
minute,

“here's a balsa-wood problem
every year,’ explains Micklus, adding
that the students’ construction skills
sometimes are astounding. “The
team fron: Pine Bluff High School in
Arkansas built one last year that held
900 pounds,” he says. “That's eur rec-
ord

In addition to the long-term prab-
lems, OM competitions feature spon-
tancous probleins given to the teams
on the day of the contest “to challenge
their ability to ‘dhTak on their feet?"
Micklus says. The spontaneous prob-
lems involve both verbal and
hands-on responses. In each case, ste
dent teams must come up with un-
usual solutions to a problem in a fim-
ited amount of time.

Fan style, “Build

Every tong-term and spontaneous
solution presented by the teams is
judged not ony on efficacy, but also

ing a spring car that
runs ts great. But we want the kids to
give consideration to visual clements
and tp havea chance to show what else
that car is,” Micklus explains.

Micklus thinks the world would be
a better place if more consider ation
were given to style by engineers, ar-
chitects, and designers. “For a long
time now, we've gotten by in our
country with selling something just
because it worked. We have to get
away from using the firse thing ve
comes to mind when we're presented
with a problem.” '

He gives a hypothetical example.
“Suppose an engineer were asked to
design a bridge, One engineer might
say: "Phere isn't the money to make it
a beautiful bridge, so Ut just make ita
functional one? Now there's nothing
wrong with 4 functional bridge. Huta
more cee oe engincer might have
accomplahed both.”

Strip mining, says Micklus, “is an
example of that bottam fine” True, he
says, “it gotthe coal out of the ground,
But what if some of the world's great
creative thinkers had been around to
talk about alternative ways to get the
conf outs shout wrecking the tand-
scape?”

When he’s aot teaching, or running
OM, Micklus often is on the roads
doing workshops for professionals in
all fickds on creative problem solving.
“Educational and institutional ap-
proaches to teaching creativity need
to change if problems like strip min-
ing are ever going to be solved and fu-
ture problems prevented.” he says.
“Ln these workshops, Fury to help
people break loose from traditional
ways of thinkiag—to consider the
possibilities rather than the Jimita-
fions.”