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Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

Learn how to generate creative ideas effectively using brainstorming techniques and forced questioning. This resource covers various brainstorming methods and tools like attribute listing and manipulative verbs to enhance creativity.

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Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

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  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.

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