Think Lab

Think Lab was started by our former Gifted Specialist, Sarah Gubitz. Think lab offers students additional practice with thinking games and activities that promote nonverbal higher order thinking skills similar to those taught during weekly lessons with all K-2 students. Students are selected to participate in the program based on observations during AIG lessons (TOPS) as well as teacher nominations.

The Think Lab is full of hands-on activities and games. Students can choose from a variety of stations, each of which promotes a different thinking skill such as visual thinking, brainstorming, or deductive reasoning. Higher level student leaders assist Thinkers at each station to challenge them to think critically about the decisions they make with each activity. While students who participate have shown marked levels of critical and creative thinking, they are not formally in the Gifted Program. Our identification process takes place in 3rd grade.

• • Divergent Thinking

  • Divergent thinking utilizes inventive and creative thinking skills. Students who excel at divergent thinking are able to list many responses to questions or brainstorm many ideas. Not only are they fluent in their thinking but are also very flexible. They tend to be original, giving offbeat and sometimes very humorous responses. These students can elaborate or expand upon an idea and because of this the flow of ideas may be interrupted. An advanced vocabulary is sometimes displayed during divergent thinking activities.

  • Convergent Thinking

  • Convergent thinking relies on analytical, deductive, logical thinking skills. The ability to intuitively see the correct answer is one characteristic of students who excel at convergent thinking. Convergent thinkers tend to see the interrelationships between clues and defer judgment until all clues have been collected. Many times, they will display outside knowledge about a topic that will help them discover the correct solution.

  • Evaluative Thinking

  • Students who are strong evaluative thinkers are able to evaluate and offer a solution that is based on valid considerations. Typically, these students see more than one point of view, understand considerations, and support decisions and opinions.

  • Visual/Spatial Thinking

  • Visual/Spatial thinkers demonstrate a good memory for detail. They may not be as verbal as their classmates and therefore may not have as much opportunity to demonstrate their talents during traditional classroom activities. Visual/Spatial thinkers often enjoy activities involving hands-on building of three-dimensional objects from two-dimensional drawings. When doing class work, these students often respond best to visual images such as graphic organizers and instructional computer programs.

Sybil the Scientist ~ Analytical Thinking

Sudoku - Sudoku