Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Playing the Float

Got a rainy day and need a few fabulous activities to foster creative thinking skills? The class works to understand the three types of human power; direct, indirect, and stored. They do this by first creating a parade float like the ones used in ancient Greece during the sixth century. Then, they write a story about human power, and they also play a game which explores the ideas of human power. Finally, they attempt to re-design or create a human-powered machine that does the same job as a mechanical one. These are some wonderful ideas here that foster critical and creative thinking, science, and the design process.