Creativity is not just a trait we’re born with, but a skill that can be taught and learned, says neuroscientist Tina Seelig. Seelig teaches young scientists and engineers to develop and heighten their creativity at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center of Stanford University’s School of Engineering. In her new book, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity, she is out to inspire all her readers, including new and experienced STEM educators, to infuse their learners’ experiences with much more creativity.
“Creativity fuels great scientific discoveries,” and can engage learners of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels, says Seelig. She encourages brainstorming as one of the most valuable creativity techniques that can be used in both professional and academic settings. “Brainstorming is the exploration phase of a project, a key to enhancing and expressing your imagination,” she explains.
Even when a particular activity is being assigned, she encourages educators to get kids brainstorming about how the activity will be done. The first rule of brainstorming, she underscores, is: THERE ARE NO BAD IDEAS. “People need to be rewarded for exploring and finding out that a particular approach won’t work,” she writes. “By actively rewarding effort, you encourage even more exploration.”
How can educators specifically promote creativity through brainstorming? Seelig suggests:
Create small groups of 6-8 learners (possibly fewer if younger learners).
Get learners to stand up—they will be more actively involved.
Don’t let one learner say negative things about another’s ideas.
Cover the walls of the room with plain newsprint paper, or provide sticky notes, for all learners to write down or draw different ideas. (If only one person is writing down the ideas, that person controls which ideas are captured.)
Include stimulating objects in the room like paper, markers, tape, scissors, cardboard, and rubber bands, and encourage learners to try making 3-D prototypes.
Free up the environment by rearranging the furniture, turning up the lights, adding varied objects like rocks and minerals, building materials, fabrics or crafts, playing high energy or soothing music—even taking the whole project outdoors.
Whatever the environment, says Seelig, educators can get kids thinking more creatively by asking them how they might undertake a project not only on Earth, but on the Moon or under the ocean. There’s nothing wrong with encouraging wild and crazy, silly, even “stupid” ideas, she has learned from experience. “They may turn out to be the most interesting ones, and actually possible!”
Seelig has worked with and studied the most creative innovators and problem solvers in science, engineering and other technology fields. From her years of teaching young scientists and engineers to increase their own creative potential, she strongly believes educators should “consider giving problems without a ‘right’ answer, providing challenges that require teamwork, and allowing students to use whatever materials they can find to solve these problems.” Instead of convincing learners that they must solve problems on their own, according to a prescribed set of directions, she emphasizes, “Students shouldn’t feel that it is ‘cheating’ to tap into all the resources they can in order to find solutions to problems that come their way.”
Brainstorming can be incorporated into almost any activity in the Howtosmile.org collection. A number of activities specifically mention brainstorming including Let's Invent, Spaghetti Tallest Tower, and Automotive Emissions and the Greenhouse Effect.