  It has been pointed out by several groups that ekpyrotic and cyclic models
generate significant non-gaussianity. In this paper, we present a physically
intuitive, semi-analytic estimate of the bispectrum. We show that, in all such
models, there is an intrinsic contribution to the non-gaussianity parameter
f_{NL} that is determined by the geometric mean of the equation of state w_{ek}
during the ekpyrotic phase and w_{c} during the phase that curvature
perturbations are generated and whose value is O(100) or more times the
intrinsic value predicted by simple slow-roll inflationary models,
f_{NL}^{intrinsic} = O(0.1). Other contributions to f_{NL}, which we also
estimate, can increase |f_{NL}| but are unlikely to decrease it significantly,
making non-gaussianity a useful test of these models. Furthermore, we discuss a
predicted correlation between the non-gaussianity and scalar spectral index
that sharpens the test.
