101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

138 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

• Combo Chatter [24]


• Ideas in a Box [25]

Procedure

1. Distribute the Mad Scientist Handout, review it with the participants, and answer
   any questions they may have.


2. Have each group take a sheet of flip-chart paper and lay it on a table or tape it to a
   wall, lengthwise.


3. Read aloud the following:
   “List six general categories across the paper for the Green Die categories. Four or five categories
   should be related directly to the problem. The others may be unrelated or even somewhat whimsi-
   cal. For each general category, list below it four or five examples, such as the briefcase materials
   shown in Table 6.2. Do the same thing for the Red Die categories, as shown in Table 6.2. As you can
   see from the table, it’s O.K. to use some of the same categories as in the Green Die list.”


4. Tell them to roll a green die (or designate a white die as “green”) and select a cate-
   gory based on the number shown.


5. Tell them to roll a red die (or designate a white die as “red”) and select a category
   based on the number shown.


6. Have them look over the lists from both categories and generate ideas by combin-
   ing one word from each category (or using any of the single words as stimuli).


7. Tell them to write down any ideas on Post-it®Notes (one idea per note) and place
   them on flip charts for evaluation.

Debrief/Discussion

A major advantage of Mad Scientist is that it provides a greater number of stimuli than

the Circle of Opportunity. Although Mad Scientist takes more time to set up, the resulting

stimuli are well worth the trouble. You also may want to use this exercise when the

groups need a little boost of energy. The game-like atmosphere provided from rolling dice

can help spark groups in ways not possible with conventional brainstorming.

Also consider having participants debrief using the following questions:

• What was most helpful about this exercise?


• What was most challenging?


• What can we apply?


• How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?


• Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?


• What did you learn?


• What will we be able to use from this exercise?


• What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?

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