101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

112 101 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

Time

30 minutes

Related Activities

• A Likely Story [15]


• PICLed Brains [16]


• Say What? [19]

Procedure

1. Prior to the session, gather an assortment of old books, catalogs, magazines, news-
   papers, or any source of words, including dictionaries, to distribute during the
   session.


2. Distribute the Text Tickler Handout and discuss it with the participants, answer-
   ing questions they might have.


3. At the start of the session, distribute at least one source of stimuli (a magazine or
   catalog) to each group member.


4. Instruct each participant to select a word or phrase from his or her word source.


5. Tell them to examine the word or phrase and use it to trigger at least one idea and
   write it on a Post-it®Note.


6. Have the group members pass their Post-it®Notes to the person on their right and
   tell them to write down any new ideas stimulated.


7. Tell the groups to repeat Steps 3 through 5 and conclude once all group members
   have selected and reported on a random word and generated an idea or when
   time is no longer available.


8. Have them place the notes on flip charts for evaluation.

Debrief/Discussion

This technique should appeal especially well to people who are good at creating visual

images from reading different words. It also helps people who can free-associate easily so

that one word leads to another, thus creating different perspectives.

To facilitate a discussion, try the following types of questions:

• Did some words lead to more ideas than others? If so, what were they and why?


• What types of problems might this activity work best with and why?


• Why is it important that the stimulus words be different from the problem challenge?

Also, consider having participants debrief using the following questions:

• What was most helpful about this exercise?


• What was most challenging?

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