Integrates story telling into a science activity on the density of liquids in order to increase student interest. Shows the relationship between mass and volume ratio and how they determine density. Includes teacher notes. (YDS)

This article outlines both specific barriers to teaching and learning creative thinking as well as some possible directions for solutions. Sixteen common barriers such as confusion, powerlessness, and negativity are described along with strategies to dissolve them using such conceptual tools as awareness plans and proactive metathinking.…

This article, third in a series, discusses the last three phases of the creative problem solving process: idea-finding, solution-finding, and acceptance-finding. These phases focus on brainstorming to generate possibilities and alternatives to the problem, evaluating each idea's strengths and limitations, prioritizing the solutions, and developing…

Sociodrama is presented as a structured, yet flexible, method of encouraging the use of creative thinking to examine a difficult problem. An example illustrates the steps involved in putting sociodrama into action. Production techniques useful in sociodrama include the soliloquy, double, role reversal, magic shop, unity of opposites, and audience…

Describes the Future Problem Solving Program, in which students from the U.S. and around the world are tackling some complex challenges facing society, ranging from acid rain to terrorism. The program uses a creative problem solving process developed for business and industry. A sixth-grade toxic waste cleanup project illustrates the process.…

This article explores the dynamics of a creative problem solving meeting which frequently reaches impasse. Excerpts from the meeting transcript are presented to determine where and why the group gets off track in developing a method to evaluate sales training. Suggestions are offered for steering the group away from win/lose arguments and into…

Creativity is an abstract concept, not a measurable, observable behavior. There is little correspondence between intelligence and creativity functions. Educators need not pierce the mythology of genius or formally define creativity to foster creative thinking. Teachers can nourish the seeds of creativity by engaging students' learning styles and…

This article compares Creative Problem Solving (CPS) to the investigative procedure of Type III enrichment in the Schoolwide Enrichment Model to show that the two models are complimentary. Training in and use of the CPS heuristic with Type III enrichment is offered as an integrated approach for authenticating problem-solving activity and enhancing…

This article examines the relationship of cognitive processing and creativity and argues that educational interventions contribute to the development of creative thinking skills when they provide requisite knowledge structures and stress controlled application of these processes in solving progressively more complex problems. (DB)

Introduces design, integrated with systems thinking, as a necessary if not sufficient means for meeting the challenge of how to create or recreate organizations and institutions. The limits of problem-solving strategies when applied to complex organizational change, the designer's role, and the creative process of design are discussed. (Contains…

Creativity exercises, or creater-cizes, can help camp staff generate ideas and solve problems. Common techniques are brainstorming, story-boarding, analogies and metaphors, association and free association, spinning, and lists. Defines and gives examples of each technique. (SAS)

Presents a model of the relationship between the presented problem parameters of art assignments and the creative processes of students. Parameter types of instructions include incomplete, overly and inadequately restrictive, and expanding/contracting parameters. Parameters of student responses are categorized as disregarded, self-imposed, and…

Finnish eighth graders used computer control software to find creative solutions to technological problems. The learning environment encouraged problem-centered and creative approaches. More systematic teaching of programming skills before problem solving was recommended. (Contains 32 references.) (SK)

This study examined the creative problem solving of 100 young children (prekindergarten to grade 2) in response to both realistic and fanciful story problems. Solutions were evaluated for fluency, elaboration, flexibility, originality, effectiveness, and realism. Although children's performance improved with age and experience, their solutions…

Creative problem solving (CPS) is an approach for identifying solutions to problems within a structured, facilitated process. In the current studies, CPS was customized for general education intervention (GEI) teams in elementary schools. In the first study, 24 GEI teams were randomly assigned either to a CPS for GEI training condition or to a…