creative thinking

20 POINTS

TO DO:

USE "SCAMPER" TECHNIQUE FOR THINKING OF NEW IDEAS:

• THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT. YOU MUST WORK ALONE ON THIS. YOUR IDEAS SHOULD NOT MATCH ANYONE ELSE'S IN YOUR GROUP.
• YOUR GROUP MUST ALL WORK ON SOLVING THE SAME PROBLEM. I WILL NOT ACCEPT YOUR OWN PROBLEM.

It can often be difficult to come up with new ideas when you're trying to develop or improve a product or service. This is where creative brainstorming techniques like SCAMPER can help. This tool helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you to think about how you could improve existing ones. SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for:

1. Substitute.
2. Combine.
3. Adapt.
4. Modify.
5. Put to another use.
6. Eliminate.
7. Reverse.

There are detailed descriptions for each element at the bottom of this document. 

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Last week, your group identified a problem to solve surrounding a "social change" issue, and now you must come up with a LOT of ideas you think might possibly solve it. Not all will work, but the purpose of this assignment is to brainstorm ideas, with the idea being that the more ideas your group has to work with, the more likely you'll find a solution when that part of the assignment rolls around later. And remember, you're looking for a solution that has never been thought of or used before. No "awareness campaigns" are allowed. Think deeper.

You’re brain will naturally want to lean toward old ideas and solutions that have been tried in the past or to simply polish up something that's already being done. These predictable solutions are low-hanging fruit, the first ones you think of where your brain feels most comfortable because these solutions have been tried and tested. Creativity is HARD, and the chances are that these first ideas will be predictable and ineffective. You have to push past them to get to the unique ideas higher in the tree. If your ideas come too easily, and your problem is truly complex, then these first ideas aren’t likely to work and you will fail in your task. That’s where a creative thinker comes in, someone who is willing to do the hard work, and take the time, that finding unique, effective solutions requires.

First, try to ask good questions. To do this, determine what's at the core of the problem you're trying to solve. Remember the example of the new Dyson vacuum cleaner? He didn't ask how he could make a better bag to collect dirt (modifying an existing solution), he wondered how could he separate dirt from air, which was the essence of his challenge. If you were trying to prevent people from committing suicide, what is behind their desire to harm themselves? That's a symptom, or a by-product, of the actual cause, which may be, for instance, clinical depression. 

Second, think about how you might combine ideas or solutions. Dyson thought about how sawmills separate dirt from air. He combined this existing technology with a household vacuum and came up with something entirely new, and better than the old way of doing things. Is there a solution being done in another area apart from foster care that might help solve your problem?

An easy way to generate a lot of ideas is to apply a checklist of creative-thinking principles that were first formally suggested by Alex Osborn and later arranged into the mnemonic SCAMPER. 

Through your research, you must now know some efforts that are already being done to combat the FAKE NEWS issue you came up with to solve. If not, continue your research to find out what is currently being done to address the problem your team has chosen to solve. 

When thinking about those efforts, think about how they could be improved by altering it using SCAMPER.  You will generate one idea per SCAMPER element below to solve your problem on the subject of fake news. So, your first idea (1), think about how you might substitute an element of a solution that is currently in place with something better to make it more effective. The second idea (2) would be how you might combine something with a solution that is currently in place to make it more effective. And so on with numbers 3 through 7. Note that there are explanations for each of the SCAMPER elements.

THE ASSIGNMENT: 

 

VIDEO LINK EXPLAINING HOW TO USE SCAMPER. (NOTE, IN THIS VIDEO I USE 'FAKE NEWS' AS A PROBLEM YOU MIGHT BE TRYING TO SOLVE, BUT THAT IS JUST AN EXAMPLE. REPLACE IT IN YOUR MIND WITH THE PROBLEM YOUR GROUP IS TRYING TO SOLVE AS YOU LISTEN.)

• THINK OF SEVEN (7) UNIQUE IDEAS THAT MIGHT SOLVE (OR CONTRIBUTE TO SOLVING) THE PROBLEM YOUR GROUP CHOSE TO SOLVE.
• Each of your ideas must use one of the "SCAMPER" elements below. 
• Each idea must be explained with at least three full sentences in length. 

WHAT CAN I....

1. S = Substitute?
2. C = Combine?
3. A = Adapt?
4. M = Magnify? = Modify?
5. P = Put to other uses?
6. E = Eliminate?
7. R = Rearrange? = Reverse?

Format them like this in your document:

1. Substitute: My idea is to substitute blah blah blah.... (type three full sentences that detail your idea)

2. Combine: My idea is to combine....

TURN IN:

1. First, write your name and group number at the top of your document.
2. Next, write the problem you and your group are going to solve 
3. Lastly, add your SEVEN SCAMPER ideas to the document and upload to the Dropbox labeled, "SCAMPER ideas." Make sure to number and label each element. 

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BELOW ARE DETAILED EXPLANATIONS OF EACH OF THESE SCAMPER ELEMENTS TO HELP YOU COME UP WITH IDEAS.

(Below is an article by Michael Michalko, the author of the highly acclaimed Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques; Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius; ThinkPak: A Brainstorming Card Deck and Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work.) SCAMPER is based on the notion that everything new is some addition or modification of something that already exists. You take a subject and change it into something else. (E.g., drilled petroleum becomes chemical feedstock becomes synthetic rubber becomes automobile tires. Natural gas becomes polyethylene becomes milk jugs. Mined ore becomes metal becomes wire becomes parts of a motor.)you can take anything that exists and change it into a new idea.

The blueprint for using SCAMPER is:

• Isolate the subject you want to think about.
• Ask the SCAMPER questions about each step of the subject and see what new ideas emerge.
• For every new idea you discover, ask "How can...?" "What else...?" "How else...?"
• List and evaluate the ideas.

Suppose you wanted to improve the ordinary paperclip? You would start looking for ideas by asking:

• - What can be substituted in the clip?
• - What can I combine the clip with to make something else?
• - What can I adapt to the clip?
• - How can I modify the clip?
• - What can I magnify or add to the clip?
• - What other uses can I find for the clip?
• - What can be eliminated from the clip?
• - What is the reverse of a clip?
• - What other rearrangement of the clip might be better?

One manufacturer substituted plastic for metal, added color, and produced plastic clips in various colors so that clipped papers could be color-coded thereby finding another use for clips.

Think about any subject from improving your productivity to reorganizing your organization and apply the AScamper@ checklist of questions. You will find that ideas start popping up almost involuntarily.

BELOW ARE DETAILED EXPLANATIONS OF EACH OF THE SCAMPER ELEMENTS. 

1. SUBSTITUTE SOMETHING? The principle of substitution is a sound way to develop alternative ideas to anything that exists. Think up ways of changing this for that and that for this. The scientist, Paul Ehrlich, kept substituting one color for another---well over 500 colors---until he found the right dye to color the veins of laboratory mice. You can substitute things, places, procedures, people, ideas, and even emotions. Ask:

• Can you substitute something? Who else? What else?
• Can the rules be changed?
• Other ingredient? Other material? Other power? Other place? Other approach?
• What else instead? What other part instead of this?

2. COMBINE IT WITH SOMETHING ELSE? Much of creative thinking involves combining previously unrelated ideas or subjects to make something new. This process is called synthesis, and is regarded by many experts as the essence of creativity. Gregor Mendel created a whole new scientific discipline, genetics, by combining mathematics with biology. Ask:

• What can be combined?
• Can we combine purposes?
• How about an assortment? A blend? An alloy? An ensemble?
• Combine units? Combine materials? What other article could be merged with this?
• How could we package a combination?
• What can be combined to multiply possible uses?
• Combine appeals?

3. ADAPT SOMETHING TO IT? One of the paradoxes of creativity is that in order to think originally, we must first familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others. Thomas Edison put it this way: "Make it a habit to keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea needs to be original only in its adaptation to the problem you are working on." Ask:

• What else is like this? What other ideas does it suggest?
• Does the past offer a parallel?
• What could I copy? Whom could I emulate?
• What idea could I incorporate?
• What other process could be adapted? What else could be adapted?
• What different contexts can I put my concept in?
• What ideas outside my field can I incorporate?

4. PICK EITHER MAGNIFY OR MODIFY TO FORM AN IDEA. NO NEED TO DO BOTH

MAGNIFY IT? An easy way to create a new idea is to take a subject and add something to it. Japanese engineer Yuma Shiraishi made the home VCR possible by figuring out how to lengthen videotapes so they would be long enough for feature-length movies. Ask:

• What can be magnified, made larger, or extended?
• What can be exaggerated? Overstated?
• What can be added? More time? Stronger? Higher? Longer?
• How about greater frequency? Extra features? What can be duplicated?
• What can add extra value?
• How can I carry it to a dramatic extreme?

OR MODIFY IT? What can be modified? Just about any aspect of anything. The hub-and-spoke transportation system that makes Federal Express work was a feature of at least three air freight services as early as 1930. What Fred Smith did was to modify the dimensions, process and purposes of the system and turned an old idea into an elegant concept. Ask:

• How can this be altered for the better? What can be modified?
• Is there a new twist?
• Change meaning, color, motion, sound, odor, form, shape? Change name?
• What changes can be made in the plans? In the process? In marketing? Other changes?
• What other form could this take? What other package? Can the package be combined with the form?

5. PUT IT TO SOME OTHER USE? A subject takes its meaning from the context in which you put it. Change the context, and you change the meaning. George Washington Carver, botanist and chemist, discovered over 300 different uses for the lowly peanut. Ask:

• What else can this be used for?
• Are there new ways to use as is?
• Other uses if modified?
• What else can be made from this?
• Other extension? Other markets?

6. ELIMINATE? Sometimes subtracting something from your subject yields new ideas. Trimming down ideas, objects, and processes may gradually narrow the subject down to its truly necessary part or function--or spotlight a part that=s appropriate for some other use. Ask:

• What if this were smaller? Understate?
• What should I omit? Delete? Subtract? What=s not necessary?
• Should I divide it? Split it up? Separate it into different parts?
• Streamline? Make miniature? Condense? Compact?
• Can the rules be eliminated?

7. PICK EITHER REARRANGE OR REVERSE TO FORM AN IDEA. NO NEED TO DO BOTH

REARRANGE IT INTO SOMETHING ELSE? Creativity, it could be said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Rearrangement usually offers countless alternatives for ideas, goods, and services. A baseball manager, for example, can shuffle his lineup 362,880 times. Ask:

• What other arrangement might be better?
• Interchange components?
• Other pattern? Other layout? Other sequence? Change the order?
• Transpose cause and effect?
• Change pace? Change schedule?

REVERSE IT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS? Reversing your perspective opens your thinking. Look at opposites and you'll see things you normally miss. Ask "What is the opposite of this?" to find a new way of looking at things. The historical breakthroughs of Columbus and Copernicus were the polar opposites of the current beliefs of their day. Ask:

• What are the opposites?
• What are the negatives?
• Can I transpose positive and negative?
• Should I turn it around? Up instead of down? Down instead of up? Consider it backwards?
• Reverse roles?
• Do the unexpected?

Even the hot dog, as we know it, is the result of the right idea-spurring question being asked at the right time. Antoine Feutchwanger sold sausages at the Louisiana Exposition in 1904. He first sold them on plates, but this proved too expensive. He then offered white cotton gloves along with the franks to prevent customers from burning their fingers. The gloves also were expensive, and customers walked off with them. Antoine and his brother-in-law, a baker, sat down and brainstormed. "What could be added (MAGNIFY) to the frankfurter that would be inexpensive and would prevent people from burning their fingers?" His brother-in-law said: "What if I baked a long bun and slit it to hold the frank?" "Then you can sell the franks, and I can sell you the buns. Who knows, it might catch on. …………………………………………………………………………………………………..