‘Seven minutes in heaven’ for your brain: Speed Dating the Experts

Every year, dozens of highly-respected experts serve as LifeSmarts judges. They come from all over the country, and bring a strong knowledge of business, consumer, and government policy to our tournaments. This year, in addition to their traditional duties behind the judges’ table, they'll also be “working the room” during our new competition. It’s a fast-paced event we're calling “Speed Dating the Experts.”

So here’s how LifeSmarts speed-dating works: each expert will be at a table, and teams will have exactly seven minutes to complete the activity before them, earning as many points as possible. Though each team will meet ten of the experts, there are only five game formats. The game you play depends on the expert you’re with at the time.

These are the five games:

1. Just Say It: It’s just like “Password.” Remember that game? Me neither. Look it up online, Betty White used to play it all the time.
2. Take A Spin: Players use a spinner to determine which topic they will tackle.
3. Jolt to the Brain: Just like the popular Lightning Rounds: ten rapid-fire questions in a row.
4. Slam: Teams are given very short clues (very short--like three letters) and have to identify the concept.
5. Picture This: Teams have to decipher pictures and explain the concept of six image sets--like this one:

Get it? War and tea = warranty!
Don't forget to explain what it is.  

As a kicker, some of the experts will have a “Super Seven” bonus. The team will have to guess a word or phrase, and the expert can give them clues...for a price. For each clue, the bonus goes down by one point. Since teams will only have one chance to guess at a Super Seven, strategy will be crucial.

The highest possible score teams can earn (without bonuses) in this competition is 120 points, but hopefully teams will get more from it than mere points. This is an opportunity for teams to better know the people who make LifeSmarts possible every year, and who knows? One may make some new friends along the way.

Championship! Philadelphia! Trivia!

The 2012 LifeSmarts National Championship is next month! With teams from across the country headed to Philadelphia this weekend, let’s take a look at some Philly trivia:

• The Liberty Bell weighs 2,080 pounds.
• Philadelphia is the site of the first presidential mansion and was once the United States capital city.
• Benjamin Jackson produced the country's first mustard in 1768 and sold it to fellow Philadelphians in glass bottles.
• Benjamin Franklin demonstrated electrical cooking in 1749. He killed a turkey by electric shock, then roasted it over a fire started by his "electrified bottle".
• The first daily newspaper was published in Philadelphia in 1784.
• Fairmount Park in Philadelphia is the largest city park with over 8,000 acres.
• In a house at 239 Arch Street, Betsy Ross fashioned the first American flag.
• If you dug straight down from Philadelphia to the other side of the globe you would end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
• The nation's first hospital opened in Philadelphia 1751.
• The Philadelphia Mint produces over 30 million coins per day.
• Philadelphia has more public art than any city in the country.
• Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in Philadelphia’s Christ Church cemetery.

See you all in Philly!

Countdown to Philly!

It’s a busy time for all things LifeSmarts. Online competitions are still open in a few states through this weekend, state competitions are in full-swing (good luck to all of our teams competing this month and next), and we are counting down to nationals (59 days to Philly!).

I had the opportunity to attend the Wisconsin state LifeSmarts competition a couple weeks ago. Seeing my first live competition of the year reminded me just why this program is such a winner. Students were attending from all corners of Wisconsin. Competition was strong, but sportsmanship ruled the day (the two final teams shook hands and congratulated one another while awaiting the judges’ scores on their final activity), and the adult coordinators, volunteers, and coaches supported the teams and cheered for everyone as the students demonstrated their consumer smarts.

I was recently explaining the impetus for the LifeSmarts program and I mentioned that LifeSmarts was the “carrot” or fun element to encourage students to learn as much about real-world consumer issues as they could while still in High School. Watching the Wisconsin competitors reminded me that LifeSmarts does exactly that – spices up consumer education and teaches us all something in the process.

How did the Wisconsin state competition turn out? As is often the case, the state championship went down to the wire – the top two teams were tied with only the team activity to go. By knowing more about deficiency diseases, the Oconto team bested Westfield by 10 points to win the state title.

It was a great day, and it got me jazzed up for Nationals! I hope to see you there.

Calling on state champs to pilot our newest resources

The LifeSmarts program of the National Consumers League recently received an unrestricted education grant from Western Union to produce three new LifeSmarts U lessons aimed at educating teens (and their teachers and LifeSmarts coaches) about fraud. We were so excited to have this support from Western Union and the ability to broaden the content within LifeSmarts U.

The first lesson, Fact or Fake Out, is available to pilot at our teaching resources page at lifesmarts.org. We would especially ask state champion coaches to help us pilot the materials and provide us with their feedback at the Coaches meeting on April 24. As extra incentive, coaches (and their teams) will find that the information covered by this lesson shows up throughout the competitions at nationals this year. (In fact, one team activity will be devoted exclusively to fraud.)

The second lesson, which will debut at the national competition, breaks down the components of fraud so that consumers can recognize the tell-tale signs and appreciate how hard some scammers will work to steal their money.

The third lesson gives students practical tips for protecting themselves from fraud, highlights the importance of reporting it, and identifies the agencies that are there to help. After the pilot concludes, all three lessons will be available on the LifeSmarts U portion of the LifeSmarts Web site this summer.

LifeSmarts Smile Show online!

We've posted the official 2008 National LifeSmarts Championship smile show on our site! Click here to see the awesome pdf - team photos, competition shots, and general craziness and fun!

Interview with Arizona Champs

Our friends at NextGenWeb have posted an interview with the new 2008 National LifeSmarts Champions on their site.

LifeSmarts on YouTube! We've made it to the big time!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Shhh! LifeSmarts staff is sleeping!

What a fun LifeSmarts National Championship event! Minneapolis was a fantastic host city, and we were thrilled to have 29 state champion teams travel to the Twin Cities, braving the threat of winter weather, to compete for the national title. We are so proud of all you guys and grateful to the coaches, coordinators, volunteer officials, awesome guest speakers, and our generous sponsors for making this program a success!

In the next day or two, we'll post a link to the 2008 National Champion slide show, which has some beautiful -- and sometimes hilarious -- images capturing the four days of fun at the Millennium Hotel. In the meantime, post or send us your stories and photos from nationals. We want to hear from you!

Arizona Takes the Title!

The Flagstaff Home Educators from Arizona have defeated Illinois' West Chicago Community High School in the 2008 National LifeSmarts Championship!

Introducing the 2008 National LifeSmarts Champion team:

Flagstaff Home Educators
Jennifer Bearchell, coach
Jan Robison, co-coach
Zach Schierl, captain
Reanna Toenjes
Emily Bearchell
Jake Robison
Michael Swift

Way to go, guys!

And Then There Were Two

We're just minutes away from the 2008 National LifeSmarts Championship!

It'll be Illinois vs. Arizona in the final match. Illinois, who made its way through the Winners Bracket, and Arizona, who was knocked down in a match yesterday but re-emerged late Monday.

It's gonna be a real nail-biter! Check it out here, streaming live, RIGHT NOW at NextGenWeb!

Illinois Headed to Finals!

Currently underway:

Arizona's Flagstaff Home Educators, coached by Jennifer Bearchell battling New Hampshire's Sullivan County 4-H, coached by Nancy Berry.

Semi-Finals Begin!

First up: Illinois vs. Virginia

Don Zabelin's team from West Chicago Community High School is up against Hilary Parr's team from Spotsylvania High School. The tension is thick in this competition ballroom. Eeek!

LifeSmarts Makes News Again!

The U.S. News and World Report's Alpha Consumer blog has dedicated an entire post to the 2008 National LifeSmarts Championship. Want to see how you measure up to the LifeSmarts participants? The blog includes sample LifeSmarts questions. Test out your knowledge on the blog.

Teams in Action

The competition is fierce! Here are more competition photos, including some shots from this morning.

This Just In! Tuesday Matches Set

The four Semi-Finalists have been determined!

Matches start at 9 am tomorrow.

Virginia vs. Illinois
New Hampshire vs. Arizona

VA, NH Headed to Semi-Finals!

Virginia and New Hampshire have made their way through the Winners Bracket and are headed to tomorrow's semi-finals. Still to be determined in the Consolation Bracket are the other two semi-finalists, which will be revealed in the next hour by matches currently underway between:

Rhode Island vs. Tennessee
Illinois vs. Missouri
Kentucky vs. Arizona
Massachusetts vs. Kansas

Hanging Out

Smiles all around! See the players enjoying some downtime in between competitions.

Update: State Champs Eliminated

This just in: these teams have been eliminated. Sorry, guys!

• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• Texas
• Washington
• Indiana
• Alabama
• New Mexico
• California
• Ohio
• Delaware
• Oklahoma
• Wisconsin
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• North Dakota
  

Game On!

Finally, what we’ve all been waiting for… the matches begin! Check out some of the teams in action on Sunday!

Check Us Out! WCCO LifeSmarts Piece Aired Sunday Night

We are stars!

LifeSmarts made the Twin Cities CBS news broadcast, WCCO, last night in consumer reporter/weekend anchor Terri Gruca's feature about LifeSmarts! You can view the story online here.

Updated Grid

Today is a half-day of quick competitions: the Consolation Bracket, where some unlucky teams will be eliminated from the 2008 National Championship, and the Winner's Bracket, where two of Tuesday's four semi-finalist teams will emerge.

This morning's competition is going to be fierce - in just a few hours, we'll know who's going to the semi-finals!