101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

58. Blender

Background

A blender mixes two or more products together to produce something that may not even

resemble the original products. Sometimes the final product is better than either of the

originals. That’s the philosophy behind the Blender activity.

According to Warfield, Geschka, and Hamilton (1975), Blender originally was devel-

oped by Helmut Schlicksupp at the Battelle Institute in Frankfurt, Germany. His name for

the method was SIL, a German acronym meaning Successive Integration of Problem Ele-

ments. This activity combines elements of brainwriting and brainstorming, thus taking

advantage of the strengths of each.

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

• Blender Handout

Time

30 minutes

252 101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving

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