VERBAL SPONTANEOUS PROBLEM:  Animal Ailments

Written by: Don Desrosiers

JUDGES tells team as they enter:  This is a verbal spontaneous problem.  You will have one minute to choose the five team members who will participate.   (Indicate where those five will sit.)  Non-participating team members may sit in the chairs on the side.  (Indicate where those team members should sit and give the team one minute to decide.)

JUDGE READS TO STUDENTS:  (Do not read numbers or phrases in parenthesis.)

 
1.  You will have 1 minute to think and 3 minutes to respond.  You may ask the judges questions but time will continue.  You may not talk to each other at any time.

 
2.  You will receive 1 point for each common response.  Creative or humorous responses will receive 3 points and highly creative or humorous responses will receive five points.  This will be a subjective opinion of the judge and the judge's decision is final.

3.  Once the time begins, it will not be stopped.  If the judge asks you to repeat or to clarify your answer, it counts against your time.  Speak loudly and clearly.

THE PROBLEM IS:

4.  Think of a illness or condition that would be bad for an animal to have and why this would be a problem. For example: an elephant with a nose cold is bad because there is so much nose to put the cold into.

(Repeat #4 , THE PROBLEM IS:  )

7.      You have 1 minutes to think.   “BEGIN” (Judge starts timer).

FOR JUDGES ONLY:

Be sure to give exactly 1 minute to think and 3 minutes to respond.  Timing is critical.  Students responding at the buzzer can finish and be scored.  Be certain that the team member places a card in the stack in the center each time he/she gives a response.

 
You should read and repeat the problem the same way for each team.  You may answer questions during the two minutes thinking period, but time continues.  After thinking time is over, reset the stopwatch for three minutes.

 

Common answers – “obvious” answers like a frog with a frog in its throat, a horse that is hoarse. A giraffe with a sore neck. A chicken with the pox.

Creative answers – Plays on words such as a toad with a frog in its throat, a pony that is a little hoarse. Things that are not illnesses per se but are more like unusual conditions, like a porcupine with an itchy back (who would scratch it?)