101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

102 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com

Handout

• Rorschach Revisionist Handout

Time

30 minutes

Related Activities

• Picture Tickler [17]


• Ideatoons [26]


• Doodles [37]


• Drawing Room [59]


• Modular Brainstorming [62]

Procedure

1. Distribute the handout showing a sample inkblot exercise. Discuss how the stim-
   uli were collected and then used to generate ideas. Ask if they have any questions.


2. Instruct each participant to make an inkblot by folding the 8.5” x 11” paper in half
   on the 8.5-inch side (as opposed to lengthwise) so that each half is roughly 5.5
   inches long and unfolds like a book.


3. Tell them to place a large (about 1.5 inches in diameter) drop of ink on one-half of
   their folded paper and then fold it over (as if closing a book) onto the side without
   any ink. Tell them to press down hard so that the ink is smeared around on the
   paper. The result is their personal inkblot.


4. Ask the participants to study their personal inkblots and encourage them not to
   fixate on the first image they see or they may have trouble seeing other images.
   Have them turn the inkblot upside down and sideways and look at it straight
   down and from an angle. Then suggest that they squint at it and rotate it to create
   different perspectives.


5. Ask each individual to share his or her inkblot with the other group members and
   describe what he or she sees in as much detail as possible. They may see many
   different images in each inkblot, so encourage them to share all of the images.


6. Caution them about limiting themselves to generating ideas prompted directly
   from the inkblot stimuli. For example, if they see nothing but animals in an
   inkblot, they shouldn’t feel obligated to use only animals as stimuli. Instead, tell
   them to let their intuition take over and concentrate on the inkblots and let the
   free associations flow. Then write down whatever ideas come to mind. For exam-
   ple, from animals they might free-associate to zoos and then to amusement parks
   and so on.


7. Ask the group members to use the descriptions of each inkblot as stimuli to gener-

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