Reprinted with permission from

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, ECUCATION, AND WELFARE/ OFFICE OF EDUCATION/ DECEMBER 1973 .

OLVMPIGS OF THE MIND

From the stata that gave you Thomas
Edison, now comes the Olympics of the
Mind. Yes, New Jersey is at it again,
fomenting ideas and fostering creativi-
ty. Come this spring, fifth- threugh 12th-
grade students with a penchant for in-
ventiveness will square off in a third an-
nual competition to determine who has
the best solutions to a prescribed set of
puzzlers.

Sam Micklus and Ted Gourley are the
inventors and promotors of the mental
marathon. Micklus is a physics profes-
sor at Glassboro State, and Gourley is
the New Jersey State Department of
Education's director for gifted anc tal-
ented.

The springtime showdown is the main
event, but there's nearly a full school
year's worth of effort put into the pre-
liminaries. Beginning in the fall,
“coaches” are recruited from among
the teaching ranks at middle; junior
high, vocational, and senior high
schools throughout the state. In coop-
eration with the four regional Education
Improvement Centers in New Jersey,
the coaches are taught the ground ruies
and instructed in the types of problems
and puzzlers that the te nt

ing their schools will be asked to sclve.
Then the coaches go back to their
schools and recruit students, through
tryouts, for their teams, Anyone and
everyone are encouraged to attend the
tryouts.

“We tell the coaches to get as many
kids involved as they can,” says Mick-
lus. "We want them to pay particular at-
tention to the problem kids. Sometimes
the pain-in-the-neck kid can turn out to
be the most creative.” During these try-
outs, students attempt to solve the
same types of puzziers they'll face in
competition.

The problems are grouped into two
categories: long-term and = sponta-
neous. A long-term problem might be
like one of last year's: stacking as much
weight as possiblé upon a structure
made trom only a half-ounce of balsa
wood {no lamination, please). The en-
tire team has from fall until the time of

~ the judging to come up with their soiu-
tion to a probiem like that.

The spontaneous problems are the
one-on-one portion of the Olympics of
the Mind. Conducted like an oral! exam-
ination, an audition, or a Jonathan Win-
ters monolog, individual team mem-

bers are given a limited amount of time
—perhaps a minute—to present the
judges with.es:'many answers as they
can to a question like: What objects can
be made with this clothes hanger? At
whieh point they are handed one.
Points are awerded on the basis of
originality.

The individual team members’ points
from the spontaneous problems and the
team's points from the long-range prob-
lems are totaled. Then a handicapoing
system is applied to ensure that fifth-
graders have as much of a chance of
winning as their elders. And finaily.
when all figuring is done, a winner is de-
clared.

School officials from all 50 states this
year, and a few from Canada, have con-
tacted Micklus and Gouriey. Some cf
tham—plus a team from Pakistan— will
be on hand with teams this spring.

These educators of the imagination
envision a day when scholarships will
be awarded on the basis of creativity.
“Why not?” asks Micklus. “There are
scholarships for athletic ability and aca-
demic distinction. Why not scholarships

” for creative people?”

For more infarmation about the com-
petition, write to Olympics of tne Mind.
P.O. Box 27, Glassboro, NJ 08028.

SPRUE GPSS SEG