101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

89. You’re a Card, Andy!

Background

Many people play cards to relax and enjoy the company of others. Others play cards to

escape their troubles. For instance, I remember fellow students in college who loved to

play cards. Unfortunately, many of them loved playing cards more than they loved study-

ing. After less than a year, most of these folks found that they had all the time in the

world to play cards—no college education, but plenty of time for cards.

One conclusion from this story may be that playing cards can be unproductive. This is

true if card playing is taken to extremes. It is possible, however, to play cards while gener-

ating ideas. Thus, you can have fun while also being productive. You’re a Card, Andy! is a

brainwriting activity developed by Goodman and Shields (1993). It is similar to Brain

Purge [82] but has the potential to generate a more fun atmosphere. Just be careful that

the group doesn’t pay more attention to playing cards than to generating ideas!

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: one deck of 100, 4 x 6 or 3 x 5 index cards, markers, two flip charts,
  and masking tape for posting flip-chart sheets


• For each participant: pens or pencils and one sheet each of three different colors of
  sticking dots

Time

30 minutes

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