101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Handout

• Rice Storm Handout

Time

60 minutes

Related Activities

• Picture Tickler [17]


• Rorschach Revisionist [18]


• Ideatoons [26]


• Doodles [37]


• Drawing Room [59]

Procedure

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

Problem Definition

1. Tell group members to write pertinent facts about the problem on index cards
   (one fact per card).


2. Have someone in each group collect and redistribute the cards among the group
   members so that no one receives his or her original card.


3. Instruct the groups to have one person read one card aloud.


4. Tell the group members to select facts on their cards that are related to the one
   read. They are then to read these facts aloud to the other members, thus building a
   set of facts.


5. Have someone record these facts on a flip chart.


6. Instruct the groups to label the set of facts using a name that reflects the set’s
   essence. Tell them to derive this name by considering all the facts and then boiling
   them down to extract essential features. This name must be (a) verifiable using the
   facts from which it was generated; (b) specific (not too general); and (c) a simple
   combination of the subset of facts.


7. Have them repeat this process (Steps 4 through 7) until all the facts have been dis-
   tilled into name sets.


8. Instruct the groups to combine all the sets until there is one all-inclusive group of
   sets that they must name. This name must (a) reflect the essence of the all-inclu-
   sive problem definition set and (b) include all of the previously discussed facts
   and essences.

Brainstorming with Related Stimuli 279

09 VG 247-294b 10/6/04 12:22 PM Page 279