101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

(Joyce) #1

37. Doodles


Background
You’ve probably heard the expression “That’s usin’ the ol’ noodle!” It means, of course,
that you were able to apply your brainpower effectively. Well, noodle power can also help
us generate ideas with doodles.
You know how to doodle, don’t you? Just start scribbling on a sheet of paper and
express your creative urges. Let your pen or pencil take off and draw swirls, loops, cir-
cles, boxes, arrows, spirals, or whatever feels right. You already may have practice doo-
dling. Most of us doodle while talking on the phone or listening to a boring speech. (Did
you ever notice that there seems to be a direct correlation between how boring a speech is
and how elaborate your doodles are?)
Because doodles provide an outlet for creative expression, they also can help generate
ideas. VanGundy (1988) designed a technique known as Symbolic Representations, which
uses doodles as the basic idea generation mechanism. Although this activity is similar to
Ideatoons [26], there is one major difference: the doodles are based on one or more major
principles underlying the problem. This focus helps target the doodles a little more than
mere random scribblings.

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


Free Association Activities: “Blue Skies” 173


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

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