101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Combinations 147

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

• Parts Is Parts Handout

Time

60 minutes

Related Activities

• Combo Chatter [24]


• Ideas in a Box [25]


• Mad Scientist [27]

Procedure

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


2. Have participants lay a sheet of flip-chart paper on a table or tape it to a wall
   lengthwise.


3. Tell them to create an idea generation grid containing attributes from two problem
   areas as shown in Table 6.3. An example would be a grid that contains packaging
   formats (e.g., bag, boil-in-bag, box, pan, jar, can, tube) and different food forms
   (e.g., cookie, biscuit, gravy, bread, dressing, steak, juice, dips). Another example
   might involve ways to increase museum attendance using attributes such as per-
   formance arts (e.g., improvisation, ballet, acting) and memberships (e.g., a “fre-
   quent attender” status, backstage visits, or special discounts on products).


4. Direct them to assign numbers to each possible combination (e.g., bag/dip = 1;
   box/steak = 2; bag/juice = 3; tube/gravy = 4). Or, using the museum example:
   ballet/backstage = 1; acting/discounts = 2.


5. Tell them to examine all the combinations and eliminate any already commercial-
   ized or now being used.


6. Have them circle combinations with the greatest potential.


7. Direct the participants to create brief statements for each of the remaining combi-
   nations. Emphasize that they should include reasons.
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