Creativity You cannot use up creativity. The more you use the more you have. --Maya Angelou

If you had to provide a working definition of creativity, how would you define it?

Creativity is… Creativity is marked by the ability or power to create to bring into existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through imaginative skill, to make or bring into existence something new. -Common definition from Webster's Any thinking process in which original patterns are formed and expressed. -H. H. Fox (scientist)... the ability to use different modes of thought to generate new and dynamic ideas and solutions -Carnevale, Gainer, Meltzer Fluency, flexibility, originality, and sometimes elaboration. -E. Paul Torrance (educator, academic, creativity investigator)

A few words about Divergent and Convergent Thinking… Divergent Thinking – ability to elaborate, and think of diverse and original ideas with fluency and speed – Brainstorming is a great example! Convergent thinking – ability to use logical and evaluative thinking to critique and narrow ideas to ones best suited for given situations, or set criteria – use this type of thinking when we make crucial and well- formed decisions In creative production both thought processes are necessary – You first diverge ideas – then narrow and refine your ideas through convergence

Fluency is… The ability to generate a number of ideas so that there is an increase of possible solutions or related products.

Flexibility is… The ability to produce different categories or perceptions so there are a variety of different ideas about the same problem or thing.

Originality is… The ability to create fresh, unique, unusual, totally new, or extremely different ideas or products.

Elaboration is… The ability to add to, embellish, or build off of an idea or product.

Brainstorming The intention of brainstorming is to generate a large number of diverse ideas and responses. This technique is a divergent thinking exercise and should be one of the primary steps used in creative problem solving.

Brainstorming There are actual rules for brainstorming and these should be followed for each session. 1.All ideas should be accepted. Avoid judgment and criticism. 2.Participant should feel unrestricted--free to say anything and everything. The farther out (crazier) the idea, the better. 3.Ideas should be built on the ideas of others. This is the concept of piggybacking. 4.The more ideas, the better. This is an exercise where the quantity of ideas is stressed over the quality of the ideas. Record ALL ideas!

This technique is used to brainstorm your ideas. By using this brainstorming process, SCAMPERing can add fluency, flexibilty, originality, and elaboration to any idea. SSubstituteIs anything like anything else? What similarities do you see? Who or what might be substituted? CCombineWhat might be brought together to combine some of this with something else? AAdjustWhat might you change by adjusting your idea? MMagnifyWhat might be made larger, smaller, or altered to change Minifythe form or quality? Modify PPut to other usesIn what different ways might this be used? EEliminateWhat could be deleted, removed, or done away with? ElaborateWhat could be added to, enhanced, made fancier, etc? RReverseWhat might be put into another order? Rearrange