This is the fourth year the finals have been at MSU, and this year 847 teams are competing, 170 of which international teams, with more than 30 states and 16 countries represented, Joan Coates, a volunteer at the world finals, said. 

The teams are being housed in 15 different dorms across campus, Coates said, as well as some at the Marriott hotel and the Kellogg Hotel, and the competitions are taking place at 13 different on-campus sites. More than 15,000 people usually come to the world finals, Coates said. 

“MSU is wonderful to work with,” Coates said. “Everyone on campus tries to do as much as they can to help students.”

Odyssey of the Mind was created in 1978 by Dr. Sam Micklus, Coates said, claiming it is the "oldest problem solving organization in the world of its type, and the largest."

Micklus said he first came up with a creative problem for his college students in his design class to solve. 

“I had a problem…it was stated simply ‘Design a flotation device that will get you around the lake, and it has to keep you safe and dry,’” Micklus said. “I said ‘try to be unique in what you do.’” 

The students had three weeks and were allowed to spend five dollars and scrounge whatever they found, but couldn’t use a gasoline motor. 

This was back in the late '60s, Micklus said — and some of the more creative devices were a hamster wheel, a device powered by electricity, and a device modeling a water bug.

“I didn’t care about success, I cared about the thinking,” Micklus said. 

A few years later, Micklus said he tried a less dangerous problem with high school and middle school students, and they loved it and wanted to do it again, which is how Odyssey of the Mind was born. 

Oates said the competition today has four different divisions, one for each age group, and there are five problems written every year in different categories. 

“We are presented with a series of problems, we decide the problem, and we prepare a comedic skit to fulfill different point values,” Jamie McClellam said, who is a high school sophomore from Traverse City competing in the finals with his team. 

There are five problems written every year: a mechanical/vehicle, a structure, a classics, a technical performance, and a performance problem, Coates said.

McClellam said his team is competing in the mechanical/vehicle problem, entitled “Runaway Train." His teammate, Julia Thompson, said teams build their vehicles prior to the competition and use them in their skit. 

Both Thompson and McClellam have been in the Odyssey of the Mind program since they we’re in elementary school, and this is their first year at world finals with their team, all of whom are high school sophomores. 

“I watched my friends do it the first year they could do it, and I wasn’t in it, and I got really jealous,” Thompson said. “So, I joined in fourth grade and have been doing it ever since.” 

Every team is given the same problem but they all come up with something different, Thompson said, adding that the competition is a way to see how intelligent and creative young people can be. 

“I had gotten in trouble and I was sitting in the office and a parent came by as my mom was coming to pick me up, she goes ‘Oh, you should get him in Odyssey of the Mind,'” McClellam said. “I joined Odyssey of the Mind, I think this was back in third, fourth grade.” 

The students come up with the ideas themselves, and create everything themselves to make the idea come to life in a creative way, McClellam said. He said because the teams are student-led the program teaches responsibility and incites leadership in participants. 

Thompson said she’s enjoyed being around all the different people and countries at finals. 

McClellam said it’s an amazing program and it’s great to see so many international teams, because Odyssey of the Mind is a little-known program in their town.

“It’s helping kids build confidence, breaking out of their shell…with performance arts, but it’s also a really interesting creativity,” McClellam said. 

Micklus said he never imagined the competition would leave the classroom, and to see it at an international level is unbelievable. 

The competition’s opening ceremonies were on Wednesday and the closing ceremonies are Saturday.