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8.5 inches and weighed no more inan 18
grams, a litle ove: half an ounce Yatitnad
to be strong enough to support the barbell
weights that were slowly ciiec on it. 4! 50-
pound increments. 2 five-sound shotput
was dropped nearby. simulating the earin-
quake. The more earthquakes the siruc-
ture survived in eight minutes, the more
points a team got.

Another challenge was Monsters Men-
acing Mankind. in which remote-con-
trolled, custom-built creatures of one igam
did battle with those of another. Finally there
was the Omonaut Chalienge. in wnich each
team represented a group of aliens ex-
ploring Earth. The challenge was to con-
struct an EEV that could carry one team
member, be powered by a 12-voit car bat-
tery, and use no more than $35 worth of
material in its construcusn. The omonaut
aliens then had to cruise over a course.
using the vehicie to gather up as many Earth
samples as possible in eignt minutes with-
Out stepping out of the EEV and withou:
using their hands or feet. (Some of the
samples: an apple. an orange. a balloon.
a nail. an egg. a cereal box. and a small
pile of sand.)

The adult judges award points not only
for efficiency but also for creative talent.

The MeLoughin gam members. wno won
Iné ragionaig anc went on to tne natcna!
competion. cressec up tner act by cec-
crating thew taces with stage paint The
aM inat eveniualiy went on tc take the
nationa! tle. 8 group of five Dboys from
James Caldweil High School, in Caicweil,
New Jersey. had even more elaborate cos-
tumes. sweatpants and long-taied tuxedo
jackets worn over orange T-shirts. They
performed their omonaut maneuvers ito the
accompaniment of their own soundirack.

At one point during the competition the
McLoughiin team showed more substan-
tive creativity. Shortly before the OM events
Segan. they realized they had nothing on
their venicie that could pick uo sand. “The
nignt Sefere the compeution we took an
old plastic flowerpot and mace it into a
scoop.” Kristin Fortlage relates. Net only
did their solution work well, Out their con-
(rivance bore an uncanny resembiance to
ine Mars Viking prcbe scoop. which NASA
needed 4 decade= to design and build.

Most participants come from the so-
called Talented and Gitted (TAG) oro-
grams. Many feel this is a program these
children have long needed. “We co a lot
for the amletcally gifted student.” says
Karen Lockman. TAG coordinator for Or-
egon's Clackamas scnool district. “but very
little for the intellectually gifted chiid. The
Olympics of the Mind gives them an outlet
for their energies.”

The Otd organizers see as more than
i¥Si ,82zy intellectual ang engineering ex-
ercises. For one thing. Samuel Micklus
caints ou!, OM heips draw out some of tne
youngsters’ Creative skills: “I've seen me-
diocre students be really good thinkers on
these problems.”

For ancther, it gets them to practice
valuable skills. “The world these young
peopie wiil inherit as adults will be filled
with questions that won't be answered in
beoks,” says Kristy Clark. “To solve them,
they'll need diverse ways of thinking and
exploring. We. have no idea wnat knowl-
edge they'll need in fifteen years, but we
do know they'll need problem-soiving skills.”

Right aoout now students ail over the
country are working on next year's list of
OM challenges. many of which are varia-
tions on those run in 1982. Instead of the
omonaut chailengs, which had 4 tuturistic
format, this year's challenge is inspired by
the past. It is called Leonardo ca Vinci's
Spring-Driven Car. The Renaissance ge-
nius once designed a car that was pro-
pelled by sprmgs. and OM oarncipants are
being asked to do something simnilar: buile
a.car that can be propelied by springs or
anything elastic and ride it around a shor:
obstacle course. Tnsn they have to prope!
it through a “time tunnel” and have it come
out the other end looking like a twenitieth-
century spring-powered machine. “It shouid
be interesting,” says Carol Micklus.0@