101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

Best of... Handout

Imagine you are part of a group charged with inventing a new coat hanger (Hall, 1994).

One of the lists involves Top Ten television shows, and the group develops traits and

ideas for the top three from the list.

Top TV Show: “Roseanne”

Traits: Irreverent, loud, earthy, big, salty, disrespectful, working-class family

Ideas:Extra-strength coat hangers for large or bulky clothes

Top TV Show: “Cheers”

Traits:Friends, leisure time, flippant, beer, sports

Ideas:Hangers with built-in deodorant properties for hanging sweat clothes in lockers

Top TV Show: “60 Minutes”

Traits:Exposes, shocks, champion of the little person, ambushes, confronting

Ideas:A hanger with a heating tube that dries clothes still wet from the wash, thereby

eliminating scandalous shrinkage and the blight of dryer wrinkles

Brainstorming with Unrelated Stimuli 301

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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