Problem Solving with SCAMPER

One of the greatest difficulties students face is thinking outside of the box on their own.

Education has so handcuffed students into thinking the way the teacher wants, the book explains, the rubric directs or the directions instruct, that they have become incapable of striking out on their own for fear of being, OH MY GOSH!!! WRONG!!!!

Bob Eberle developed the SCAMPER system in 1982 to assist students in ways to creatively approach problem solving.

SCAMPER is an acronym of options students can call upon in their approach to solving problems by creative means when thinking outside the box and extending the boundaries is a necessary part of the process solution.

S - SUBSTITUE       What other material, process, method could we use instead?

C - COMBINE         What can we add, cluster or put together to change our perspective?

A - ADAPT               What can we change, adjust or do differently to fit the situation?

M - MODIFY           How can we alter or change the form or quality? Can we resize the form?

P - PUT TO USE      What else could this be used for? Where can this be valuable?

E - ELIMINATE      What could we remove or omit to change our perspective?

R - REVERSE          Could we deconstruct the information to understand the process?    

How many of us have witnessed that classroom where every students can follow directions and achieve the desired result? The classroom where 32 paper look exactly the same because each student can follow the designed algorithm and produce the expected end product?

But, can these same students think out side the box, without a rubric, without specified directions, without a known value as an outcome?  Can these students bring something to the table from another classroom, from a life experience or from another source and derive their own outcome?

It is imperative that the process of learning provide students the opportunity to problem solve free from expectation of producing an expected outcome.  To be able to experience the processes of due diligence necessary to produce an outcome, correct or otherwise.  A process that allows students to make mistakes without judgement, but encouragement to search out a better solution.  A learning environment that values that process as a means to an outcome but not the only outcome.

Allow students to SCAMPER.   

   

Paper Airplanes - Intro to Bernouli

“The airplane stays up because it doesn't have the time to fall.”

                                             -Wright Brothers -

As an introduction to Bernouli's Principle and the concepts of air pressure and currents,

I like to spend a day making paper airplanes with my students.

I found a terrific website by Ryan Farrington  

(http://www.ncgraphicarts.com/ryan/other/planes.htm ) 

that has design plans for several variations of paper airplanes. 

I provide my students with these plans. My students then must create and decorate four airplanes.  They must make at least two from the designs I provide for them.

(A great excercise in following directions) 

We then trek out to the football stadium and launch our planes trying to get them to land in the zeroes of the 40 and 50 yard line markers on the field.

 Students take notes on the effectiveness of their designs and methods of tossing their planes.

We then head back to the classroom to discuss the physics of flight and the Principles of Bernouli.

  

TEDitorials

During the last two years, I have tried to increase the Effective Communication aspect of the

Three C's of the science curriculum in my classroom.

Students have become so compartmentalized in the subjects we teach they tend not to bring their English minds to the table when it comes to writing in science.  While I explain to students that their are differences in the way we may present information in science, it is important that their written communication is organized, clear and concise and demonstrate the same expectations of gramar, punctuation, capitalization and spelling as they would in a paper for English or History.

To accomplish this, I have used an assignment called a TEDitorial.  I select and post a TED video (http://www.ted.com/) on my classroom Moodle site every Monday throughout the semester.  Students must view five TEDs throughout the semester and compose and post an editorial supporting or denying the claims of the TED presenter.  Students must incorporate their own research and information from our classroom discussions to support their opinion of the presenter's information. 

The trend through three semester of this assignment has been very typical.  I usually need to spend a great deal of time explaining the difference between a summary of the TED and an editorial for the first two submissions.  I also spend a great deal of time correcting the English aspects of their writing. Which most students can't seem to understand why this is important in science course.  By the third submission most students are actually writing editorials and submitting extra in the way of links to websites they discovered while researching the topic further.  I also have discovered that interest tends to peak about the fourth editorial and students watch several of the TEDs before choosing one that they have more passion about and truly want to editorialize.

I have found that many students begin to visit the TED site on their own to search out information about other topics on top of the science and learning based TEDs that I have selected for them.

Prepare for Pi Day - 3.14 Pi Day

Pi Day Celebration Ideas

Website Links

http://www.piday.org/   The Official Pi Day Website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day   Wikipedia Pi Day
http://www.teachpi.org/    Pi Day for Educators
http://www.pidaychallenge.com/  Enter the Pi Day Challenge
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson335.shtml   Plan A Pi Day Party
http://www.123greetings.com/events/pi_day/  Send Pi Day Greetings
http://www.pidayprinceton.com/  Pi Day At Princeton
http://mathforum.org/t2t/faq/faq.pi.html   Pi Day Math Forum
http://mathematicianspictures.com/PI/PI-DAY.htm   Mathematicians Pi Day
http://www.joyofpi.com/pilinks.html   The Joy of Pi

Pi Day You Tube Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgeKx6O2cLQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BwKZEp2K_0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIQQp7fF46A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9zLbIE8zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YsM4ElTJcE

Linear Paths of Learning

I teach in a linear manner.

I design a lesson that makes sense to me. 

A lesson that flows from point A to B to C and so on toward a learning objective. 

However, is that linear path suitable to only for me?

Do I take in to account the learning paths of the twenty-five bright and shiny faces that share my learning environment?

Do my students learn in that same linear manner?

Do we all learn in the same way? Just because A...B...C... seems tp be the, most logical and efficient in my mind as an educator, is that necessarily the most effective way to reach all of my students? Have I taken the time and do I know my students well enough to teach in the best possible way for them to learn? 

Have I addressed the student who needs to see the big picture and know the final outcome in order for them to internalize the value of what is being taught? 

Have I addressed the needs of the students who need to see all the little parts of the lesson, but learns best by putting them together themselves? 

Have I utilized images that bring the words numbers and symbols to life for those students who depend on visual clues to address patterns toward the ultimate goal? 

Do my students understand that the roadmap that I am trying to create for them is just one possible path? That there are other possible means of gaining the objective and that they may follow the path that most fits their tools and skills?

Have I created a learning environment for the sequential linear learner as well as the circuitous learner, to both find a means for their own success?

Have I given my students  a method to tell me when my linear path does not meet theirs?

Do my students know their own learning path and have I cultivated a means for them to explore their own learning?

Have I created an environment where the value is placed on learning and not grades and correct answers?

Do my students enter my learning environment knowing the expectations for learning come first and that grades and correct answers will flow from their ability to learn?

Am I a teacher of learning or am I a teacher of a subject?

Because the most important skill in life today,

is the ability to learn!!!