Contributions: Manuel Barcelo
Title image by: https://theabundantartist.com/science-creativity/
Contributions: Manuel Barcelo
Title image by: https://theabundantartist.com/science-creativity/
Megan Fork is a Ph.D. student at the Heffernan lab at Nicholas School. Megan grew up in southern Wisconsin, She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 4 degrees--all in Biology Aspects. She enjoys seeing the Ecosystem. She had a job at World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (W.W.O.O.F) as a volunteer for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. She had those jobs until she started her research as a technician in the Freshwater Ecology Research Group. She did this at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. She hopes to discover the pros and cons of global change.
When we were children in Science, we learned how to solve problems using the scientific method. As scientists, we are thought to follow a straight and rational path to learn about the world. If we constantly use this strict method, there wouldn’t be a good reason why we would use creativity in Science. Surprisingly enough, creativity has a lot to do with science.¹
One of the ways Science can relate to Creativity is that we can characterize the creative thinking of the results of a novel and the value of the product. This might sound like nothing that has to do with neither Science nor Creativity but thinking is a given starting point is a pre-specified series of justified steps. If you think like that with Science, you can get somewhere far. For example, if you can calculate the -g force and +g force of a drop, you have the starting plan of the roller coaster. You can use science just like that, in a creative way. Another reason we need creativity is to generate alternative hypotheses. Creativity helps scientists develop new ideas about the world with results when they couldn't fit in, for example, time dilation/relativity & the arrangement of the periodic table of the elements. Without creativity, Science wouldn't be as interesting as it is.¹