Home from MSU, Part 2

Day 3

The big day for the kids. The day we came all the way here for. Time to do their packets. They were given a future scene about pandemics and they had to solve it. Coming up with their own set of criteria, challenges, underlying problem, and a solution. In 2 hours no less. Then they had almost 4 hours to create a skit with costumes about the solution to their underlying problem. Please remember these kids are in 5th grade...

So, we parents had to hang back and wait until 3:30 when we could go see them perform their skit. We decided to have breakfast at the hotel and then wander around campus. Do a little sight seeing and shopping.

The campus is pretty cute up by Grand River Ave. Where to dorms are the buildings aren't so cute.





I found a few things to bring home to the boys and we got some lunch at Noodle & Co. I haven't eaten there since I left Denver. This campus got better by the minute once I found that, a Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, a used book store (where I got a good book to read), and a Chipotle! There is apparently a nice quilt store near by too but I didn't have a car and I didn't want to walk three miles there and three miles back carrying fabric.

Time for the skit. It was funny. The kids all used an accent from a foreign country.

This is the suit that will keep you from getting Blue Nile Virus.

Although we enjoyed their skit they didn't move on the final round. The kids that won did this whole rap with one kid beat boxing while another kid rapped and the other kids danced. I don't know how they pulled that together in 4 hours...

After yet another delicious meal (yack!) we went to see the CmPS (Community Problem Solving) projects. Hannah got really excited about these and she wants to do one for next year. What the kids do is decide on a problem facing their own community. First they pick the underlying problem and then they show how they solved it.

An Australian team wanted to Unify the country by learning from the Aborigines.


Texas kids helped handicapped kids through riding horses and grooming.


These kids wanted to make science more interesting and fun.

How do you keep the bathrooms at school from being tagged? Let the senior art students do murals on the walls.

Another group wanted to bring awareness to girls about being proud of who they are. From motivational speakers to classes.


There was sooo much to look at. Crotchet for cancer patients, support for kids who lost a family member, saving a native bird, the tara-iti, in New Zealand, turning cooking oil into fuel, etc. It was awesome.

Our little team of kids headed back to the dorms around 9 pm. We sat in the lounge again and watched some of the Nuggets game. I met some people in from Colorado for a wedding. Apparently when you announce to your table that the Nuggets have sucked your whole life other people wonder where you're from.

To be continued...