Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

1. Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas Jim Flowers Ball State University

2. 1. Brainstorming • Good for a flood of ideas • Limited by what’s in the lake

3. Rules: • (Assumption: Clear problem definition) • Defer judgment. • Aim for quantity and variety. • Record all responses.

4. Options • Present examples? • Allow incubation time? • Set a time limit? • Vary the number of brainstormers?

5. Typical procedure: • State rules • Present problem statement • (List examples) • Allow for incubation • Say “Go” • Record all responses.

6. 5 Brainstorming Examples • Individual • Whole-group • Small group • Relay • Round robin

7. Individual Brainstorming • (Get ready to write your responses.)

8. Topic: Uses for Animal Skin • Common response: leather shoe • Uncommon response: to hold animals together

9. Whole class brainstorming • (Get ready to call out your responses.)

10. Topic: Types of Ships • Common response: battleship • Uncommon response: penmanship

11. Small Group Brainstorming • (Collaborate with your group members.)

12. Topic: • “How can you use a barometer to help determine the height of a building?”

13. Relay Brainstorming • Each team member must respond in order. • Responses cannot be used twice. • No helping is allowed. • Teams compete.

14. Relay Brainstorming • (Who responds first?) • (Get ready to respond.)

15. Topic: Things that support other things. • (You must list the thing that supports and the thing supported.) • Common response: A foundation supports a building. • Uncommon response: Parents support the PTA.

16. Round Robin Brainstorming • Respond quickly. • Respond only during your turn. • Step back when you are asked.

17. Topic: • “New uses for discarded automobile tires”

18. 5 Brainstorming Examples • Individual • Whole-group • Small group • Relay • Round robin

19. Common Aspects of Brainstorming Sessions • Many ideas • Wide variety of ideas • Limited • Defer judgment (no killer phrases allowed) • Quick • Active • Creative

20. Brainstorming sessions differ regarding: • Size of group • Time limits • Competition • Mode of expression • Noisiness • Pressure

21. Is it right to put students under pressure when we ask them to be creative?

22. Use brainstorming: • To generate possible solutions. • To help generate problem statements. • As a break in a class. • To introduce or break the ice. • Where creative responses are appropriate.

23. Beyond brainstorming

24. 2. Forced Questioning • Problem solvers use terms to help them formulate original questions regarding a topic.

25. Basic Question Terms • Who • What • Where • When • Why • How

26. Sample Problem: • Design a system for packaging an egg so that it can withstand being released 20’ above the ground without breaking.

27. Questions for Egg Drop • What packaging shapes absorb impact? • When, during the egg’s descent, should our system act? • What other technologies are designed to minimize injury due to impact? • Why are we assuming the egg is to fall?

28. Question Dice & Question Wheels

29. Second Set of Terms • Did • Will • Might • Would • Could • Should

30. Typical 2-Dice Terms • Who could… • When will… • What might…

31. What can you do with a piece of paper? • Write notes. • Draw pictures. • Scribble. • Work out math problems. • Draw maps.

32. 3. Attribute Listing • List all of the attributes or properties of an object so that unintended uses appear.

33. Paper: • White • Thin (0.004”) • 90-degree corners • Translucent

34. 4. Manipulative Verbs • Help us consider a certain change in physical objects or concepts.

35. Reverse (Push/Pull)

36. Manipulative Verbs • Adapt • Modify • Substitute • Magnify • Minify • Rearrange • Reverse • Combine • (Other) • (Alex Osborn)

37. Manipulative verbs: • Can be applied to solutions • Can be applied to problem statements

38. Problem Statement Reversal • State the opposite of your goal: • “How can we get people to hate our web site and leave it right away?”

39. 5. Forced Lateral Thinking • Violates tacit assumptions • (Assumption Smashing) • E.g., how can our competitive robot store more balls than its rival? • Can become • How can our robot get one ball and destroy the rival?

40. 6. Thinking Assignments • “Six thinking hats” (Edward deBono) • White Hat Thinking: facts • Red: intuitions and emotions • Black: judgment and caution • Yellow: logical positive; finding the good in each option • Green: creative alternatives • Blue: control; metacognition

41. 7. Forced Analogy & Metaphorical Thinking • Our company as a life preserver • My family seems like candle • Love is like a whetstone • The Internet is our conscience • (Later elaborations)

42. 8. Sketching & Sketchstorming • Fast sketchstorming • Slower, more detailed sketching • Sketching while manipulating a 3D object

43. 9. Constructing / 3D Modeling / Tinkering • Allow physical objects to stimulate ideas. • Have students generate solutions by helping them with visualization. • Help student with visualization by having them generate solutions.

44. 10. Thought Book / Diary / Log • “Last night, in a dream, I had this great idea for a new invention. I remembered the idea when I first awoke, but I can’t recall it now.”

45. 11. Stream of Consciousness

46. 12. Association • Stream of terms • Pairs of terms • (Random input method)

47. Paired Term Association Example • Term AskedResponse • Egg yolk • Break pedal • Fall leaf • Time delay

48. Forced Connections (Hybrid Ideas) • Making a connection between two seemingly unrelated terms, concepts or objects. • Conceptual: In-line skates • Physical: Swiss army knife

49. Forced Connections: New Product Ideas • Eagle • Dog • Chair • Broom • Sun • Water • Oil • Poetry

50. 13. Morphological Charts • List different properties (shapes) as column headings and the possible choices below; select a path through the chart.