Creativity

Creativity: changing up the norm

Purpose:

When asked to be creative or to brainstorm new ideas, many people don't know where to start. But there are some simple tips that can help you to come up with new ideas, and this unit is going to introduce them to you.

Goals for this unit:

Learn protocols for increasing creativity

Experiment creating new and unique things

Essential standard: VA:Cr1.1.7a

Apply methods to overcome creative blocks

What does it mean to be creative?

Not the norm.

Not the expected.

Not the ordinary.

Something new, unexpected, different.

First, study get to know the thing you need to change.

You need to observe, research, and understand the characteristics of the item you are tasked with changing. You have to know the NORM to change it into something unexpected. We will use trees for our example.

Next, you have to do things that are unexpected. Watch the following videos for ideas about how to creatively change trees.

A note about You-ness. Don't forget to leave a little of you in your work. Sometimes in the finished product, students lose the bits of their work that make it unique and different from everyone else. Keep your finished work a bit loose, a bit "imperfect". That's what makes it special.

Finally--create a brainstorming list. Come up with a list of at minimum of 30 things that you could do to change a tree in an unexpected way. You will turn the list in.