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Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington                      May 27, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-0836)

Edward Campion
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0697)

RELEASE:  03-184

NASA HELPS SPONSOR CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETITION

     NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is sponsoring one of 
this year's problems at the 26th annual "Odyssey of the Mind 
World Finals."

Children from around the world gather May 28-31 at Iowa 
State University, Ames, Iowa, to compete in the creative 
problem solving competition. The Odyssey challenges students 
to solve long-term problems ranging from science and 
technology to the creative arts.

NASA is challenging students to design, build and run three 
small vehicles to transport items from an Orbit Area to an 
Assembly Station in space. The NASA problem opens with a 
three-dimensional representation of a scene of the Earth as 
viewed from space. Items affecting the problem, both real 
and imaginary, are added to the scenario, and the scene 
changes. The vehicles will be powered in different ways. One 
vehicle will carry its energy source, and the other two will 
travel on the momentum created by different sources.

Over the past year, NASA has supported the Odyssey through a 
Web site for participants to help develop solutions to 
problems facing the Earth and to help students learn more 
about the environment. NASA has also created curriculum 
activities for members in an effort to integrate creative 
problem solving into the classroom.

The Odyssey and NASA partnership is a natural collaboration. 
Both organizations represent the best in innovation, 
teamwork and creative problem solving. NASA expects to reach 
nearly two million students, parents, teachers and coaches 
world-wide through sponsorship of "Odyssey of the Mind," 
stimulating interest and learning about Earth system 
science.

The Odyssey program, founded in 1978, is an international 
creative problem solving competition for students from 
kindergarten through college. Participants come from almost 
every state and Australia, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, 
Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, 
Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Siberia, 
Singapore, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and West Africa. During 
the year, students are separated into four divisions, based 
on age, and form teams to solve one of five long-term 
challenges. After developing their solutions, teams compete 
at state and regional levels.

The mission of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is to develop 
a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its 
response to natural or human-induced changes to enable 
improved prediction capability for climate, weather and 
natural hazards.

For information about "Odyssey of the Mind" visit the 
official Web site at:

http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/

For information about the "Odyssey of the Mind World Finals" 
competition visit: 

http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/wf2003

NASA's "Odyssey of the Mind" Web site is at:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/odysseyofthemind/

For information about NASA, Education, and Earth Science 
Programs on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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