Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

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Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

• Jim Flowers
• Ball State University

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1. Brainstorming

• Good for a flood of ideas
• Limited by whats in the lake

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Rules

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

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Options

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

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Typical procedure

• State rules
• Present problem statement
• (List examples)
• Allow for incubation
• Say Go
• Record all responses.

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5 Brainstorming Examples

• Individual
• Whole-group
• Small group
• Relay
• Round robin

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Individual Brainstorming

• (Get ready to write your responses.)

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Topic Uses for Animal Skin

• Common response leather shoe
• Uncommon response to hold animals together

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Whole class brainstorming

• (Get ready to call out your responses.)

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Topic Types of Ships

• Common response battleship
• Uncommon response penmanship

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Small Group Brainstorming

• (Collaborate with your group members.)

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Topic

• How can you use a barometer to help determine
  the height of a building?

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Relay Brainstorming

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

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Relay Brainstorming

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

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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.

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Round Robin Brainstorming

• Respond quickly.
• Respond only during your turn.
• Step back when you are asked.

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Topic

• New uses for discarded automobile tires

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5 Brainstorming Examples

• Individual
• Whole-group
• Small group
• Relay
• Round robin

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Common Aspects of Brainstorming Sessions

• Many ideas
• Wide variety of ideas
• Limited
• Defer judgment (no killer phrases allowed)
• Quick
• Active
• Creative

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Brainstorming sessions differ regarding

• Size of group
• Time limits
• Competition
• Mode of expression
• Noisiness
• Pressure

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

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Beyond brainstorming
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2. Forced Questioning

• Problem solvers use terms to help them formulate
  original questions regarding a topic.

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Basic Question Terms

• Who
• What
• Where
• When
• Why
• How

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Sample Problem

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

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Questions for Egg Drop

• What packaging shapes absorb impact?
• When, during the eggs 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?

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Question Dice Question Wheels
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Second Set of Terms

• Did
• Will
• Might
• Would
• Could
• Should

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Typical 2-Dice Terms

• Who could
• When will
• What might

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What can you do with a piece of paper?

• Write notes.
• Draw pictures.
• Scribble.
• Work out math problems.
• Draw maps.

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3. Attribute Listing

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

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Paper

• White
• Thin (0.004)
• 90-degree corners
• Translucent

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4. Manipulative Verbs

• Help us consider a certain change in physical
  objects or concepts.

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Reverse (Push/Pull)
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Manipulative Verbs

• Adapt
• Modify
• Substitute
• Magnify
• Minify
• Rearrange
• Reverse
• Combine
• (Other)
• (Alex Osborn)

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Manipulative verbs

• Can be applied to solutions
• Can be applied to problem statements

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Problem Statement Reversal

• State the opposite of your goal
• How can we get people to hate our web site and
  leave it right away?

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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?

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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

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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)

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8. Sketching Sketchstorming

• Fast sketchstorming
• Slower, more detailed sketching
• Sketching while manipulating a 3D object

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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.

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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 cant recall it now.

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11. Stream of Consciousness
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12. Association

• Stream of terms
• Pairs of terms
• (Random input method)

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Paired Term Association Example

• Term Asked Response
• Egg yolk
• Break pedal
• Fall leaf
• Time delay

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Forced Connections (Hybrid Ideas)

• Making a connection between two seemingly
  unrelated terms, concepts or objects.
• Conceptual In-line skates
• Physical Swiss army knife

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Forced Connections New Product Ideas

• Eagle
• Dog
• Chair
• Broom
• Sun
• Water
• Oil
• Poetry

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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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Chair Chart

• Matl Color Rock Height
• Wood black yes tall
• Metal brown no regular
• Plastic white adjustable
• blue

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Chair Chart

• Matl Color Rock Height
• Wood black yes tall
• Metal brown no regular
• Plastic white adjustable
• blue

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14. Mind Mapping

• Tony Buzan

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15. Other graphic displays

• Storyboarding
• Venn Diagrams
• Flowcharting
• Lotus Blossom
• Thinkpak by
• Michael Michalko

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16. Fooling your mind

• Putting it on the back burner
• Unconscious Problem Solving
• Walking around
• Frequent disruptions may promote alternatives.
• Cf The Discontinuity Principle

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17. Research!!!

• Visit the library.
• Read.
• Search the Internet.
• Ask experts.
• Conduct experiments.
• Visit the competition. (Imitation)
• Read more.
• Assess previous attempts.
• Discuss what you know.
• Read.

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18. Question the Problem and its Assumptions

• Kirk reprogrammed the computer.
• Peaches will not grow everywhere.
• Maybe its not a (blank) problem at all maybe
  its really a (blank) problem, instead.

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Promoting critical thought

• Pay them to
• Find a mistake
• Add to a list
• Double their credit if they
• Find a mistake on a test
• Post a correction of a web site
• Make mistakes on purpose

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5 Examples of

• 1. Brainstorming
• Individual
• Whole-group
• Small group
• Relay
• Round robin

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Other Ideation Techniques

• 2. Forced Questioning
• Question Dice Question Wheels
• 3. Attribute Listing
• 4. Manipulative Verbs
• 5. Forced Lateral Thinking
• 6. Thinking Assignments
• 7. Forced Analogy Metaphorical

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More Ideation Techniques

• 8. Sketching Sketchstorming
• 9. Constructing / 3D Modeling / Tinkering
• 10. Thought Book / Diary / Log
• 11. Stream of Consciousness
• 12. Association
• Forced Connections

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More Ideation Techniques

• 13. Morphological Charts
• 14. Mind Mapping
• 15. Other graphic displays
• 16. Fooling your mind
• 17. Research
• 18. Question the Problem and its Assumptions

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Helping Students Generate Creative Ideas

• Jim Flowers
• Ball State University