101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

94. Brainsketching

Background

If you’re like many people, you may enjoy drawing

doodles and sketches of various objects. You may do

this absentmindedly while talking on the phone, for

instance, or intentionally while trying to visualize

some problem aspect.

Brainsketching draws on this natural activity and

applies it in a group setting.

Brainsketching was developed by Pickens (1980) as

a modification of the Brain Purge activity [82]. The pri-

mary difference is that Brainsketching involves pass-

ing pictures around a group instead of ideas. Another

distinction is that the sketches may be more abstract

and symbolic than the ideas used by the Brain Purge

activity.

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


• For each participant: one 8.5” x 11” sheet of paper, a small box of crayons, and a pen
  or pencil

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