101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

130 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

25. Ideas in a Box

Background

Ideas in a Box—originally known as Morphological Analysis or Matrix Analysis—was

developed by astronomer Fritz Zwicky (1969) to help generate scientific ideas. As with

other combination activities, Ideas in a Box prompts ideas by forcing together problem

attributes that lead to new ideas. Although the activity has variations, the one presented

here is typical.

Objectives

• To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible


• To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas

Participants

Small groups of four to seven people each

Materials, Supplies, and Equipment

• For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart
  sheets


• For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots
  (^1 ⁄ 2 ” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it®Notes.

Handout

• Ideas in a Box Handout

Time

30 minutes

Related Activities

• Circle of Opportunity [23]

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