Creativity

A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

Let’s make valentines with an educational twist!

So what are some new ways to use a paperclip?

What do you see in this squiggle?

Can your students come up with a one-syllable word to sum up their time away from school? And then rewrite The Beatles’ song Help!?

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

So, what can a pencil be used for other than writing and drawing?

So, what can a cardboard tube be used for other than holding wrapping paper?

What would the consequences be if all people lived much, much longer?

What would the consequences be if no one had to sleep anymore?

So, what CAN a CAN be used for other than storing liquids?

So, what can a chair be used for other than, you know, sitting in?

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

Students start with the same squiggle and then draw on it, turning it into whatever they think it might be.

What would the consequences be if a town’s tap water became… unreliable?