The Gedanken Institute presents challenging problems requiring long, careful, focused thought. Students spend the majority of their time thinking, rather than doing. They perform the necessary pre-solving process of understanding the problem, gathering information, taking inventory, discussing possible approaches and trying to gain insights to the architecture of the solution space. The focus is on consensus building, developing mental stamina, contributing as a team member, developing social capital and becoming an independent, creative problem solver. Subjects include operations research, pattern recognition, risk management, probability, geometry, topology, game strategy and logic.