A special workshop was organized by the American Centre on 12th July 2010 at DPS R.K.Puram under the ‘Odyssey of the Mind Program’ for the teachers of Delhi Public Schools. It was conducted by Mr. Samuel W.Micklus, the President of Creative Competitions, Inc. Also present on the occasion were Mr.Ashok Chandra, Chairman of DPS Society and Mrs.Renu Mital, Director, DPS Society. Mr.Micklus was accompanied by Ms.Lydia Barraza, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer and Ms.Ayesha Gideon, Cultural Affairs Specialist from the American Centre.

The Principal, Dr.D.R.Saini warmly greeted all the guests. The Chairman, Mr.Ashok Chandra, addressed the gathering and stressed on the importance of such innovative and thought provoking sessions which would enable teachers to develop creative thinking and thinking ‘out-of-the-box’ in the students.

Ms.Lydia Barraza, Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer introduced Mr.Samuel W.Micklus, the President of Creative Competitions, Inc, a company that creates educational materials to develop and enhance critical thinking skills, creative problem-solving abilities, and cooperative learning. Mr.Micklus also serves as the Executive Director of ‘Odyssey of the Mind’. 

‘Odyssey of the Mind’ is an international school-based creative problem-solving program. In the creative experience, presenters challenge workshop participants to solve a problem spontaneously as a way to introduce them to creative thinking. Using humour to illustrate the different learning styles of people, presenters discuss the different types of people it takes to solve a problem creatively. Mr.Micklus showed an audio-visual presentation about the various activities of the programme and its benefits to the students. The teachers were then engaged in various activities where creative thinking and problem solving were involved.