Ingenuity, Inventing, and

Creative Learning

©Ed Sobey, Ph.D.

Northwest Invention Center

Vice President, Kids Invent!

www.invention-center.com

www.kidsinvent.com

[email protected]

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 Ingenuity Learning Model
Challenge: Start with a challenge –
“can your team make a car
Challenge
that……?” No 10-minute preamble.
Present the challenge and get out of
the way.
Once teams accept the challenge, you
no longer have to teach. It is up to
them to learn whatever is needed to
complete the challenge.
Build Build: Follow inventors rules:
 work fast
 make mistakes fast
 steal ideas
 make one change at a time
Play/test  dare to try something new

Test: As fast as they can, they build a

model and test it. Testing should
include measurement.
You question them: what happened,
why did it happen, what can they do
Improve
to improve the design.
Improve: they make one change (re-
build) and test it again. They make a
measurement and record it. Do as
Share
many times as possible.
Share: After as many iterations
(build, test, improve) as time allows,
Reflect each team shares its design and
describes its success in meeting the
challenge.
Reflect: Talk about how the models
Imagine worked, the science behind them,
how well the teams worked…

Imagine: have them image what else they could do- after school, at home, for
science fair. Encourage them to bring in improved models from home.

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 The Challenge

We start with a challenge or question. Questions and challenges make us think. Giving
statements or facts do not make us think. Since learning can’t occur without thinking, start
with a question.

Challenges get kids doing. They are moving and thinking. They are drawing on what they
already know. Right or wrong their current understanding is where they start. If their
understanding is incorrect the only way it will change is if they see their ideas (represented in
their models) fail. When you see their models you are looking inside their brains at a
representation of their current understanding.

Challenges engage minds. In fact humans are happiest when working on challenges.
Extensive research by Csikszentmihalyi has shown that under certain conditions, called
FLOW, people will engage in any challenge you give them. If you want kids to learn, make
learning a FLOW activity.

The Ingenuity Learning Model is based on creating FLOW in the learning experience.

Conditions of Flow:

1. People are engaged in a challenging task – doable, but not slam-dunk easy

2. They can focus on the task – distractions are minimized

3. The task has clear, measurable goals.

4. Because they have clear and measurable goals, they get immediate feedback. Immediate
feedback is critical to motivation.

5. The challenge consumes one’s consciousness

6. They have sense of control. You are not micro-managing them. They have the freedom to
make mistakes – as long as the mistakes will not cause injury or serious loss of materials.

7. Time passes quickly

Here’s the secret of Ingenuity: when you transform the classroom from a
traditional model to a FLOW model students will want to learn.

(Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).

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 Build

“But, where’s the design?” you ask. You’re wasting time designing something you have no
experience with. You don’t know where to start. Instead, you look at the materials available
and start putting them together. This is the FAST PROTOTYPE method.

Kids (or adults, too) work best when they can start manipulating the materials instead of
trying to sketch a design. They design by building it.

The process of building will raise many questions that won’t arise as quickly in a design
process. Questions about materials, size, adhesives, ….Each question generates thinking and
thinking leads to understanding.

This is how technology companies work. They build prototypes, not as the culmination of a
design, but as a process to develop the design. Prototypes are not the result of innovation –
but an engine of innovation. Here’s why

 Prototypes create interactions between people and interactions lead to innovation

 Behavior – not knowledge - drives innovation and learning. Innovation is less the product
of how innovators think than a by-product for how they behave.

 Models and simulations create conditions where people can be creative and where they
can learn. Models allow people to try “silly” ideas and see why they work or don’t work.

 Prototypes externalize thought and spark conversation

 Rather than have lots of design requirements, get the principle ones and then build a
prototype- quick and dirty prototype.

 Value is less with the models themselves and more with the interactions they create and
the understanding they enable

 A good prototype is a magnet for attracting smart people with creative ideas. Innovative
teams form around interesting models.

 Prototypes create choices that testing can decide.

 Quick and dirty prototypes drive innovation – rather than making detailed, final
prototype. Be the hare, not the tortoise.

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 Essential for the build phase are inventor’s rules:

Inventor’s rules:

1. Work quickly
2. Make mistakes as quickly as you can
3. Swipe ideas
4. Dare to be creative

Work quickly? There isn’t enough time to work deliberately. Beside, that neat model you are
building probably won’t work. Make it fast and test it to find out why it won’t work. While
the deliberate team is making a perfect model (that won’t work), the fast team has found their
design flaws by quickly making mistakes and has made two or three improvements so their
model works.

We like mistakes. Correcting each mistake leads to new understanding. If the model works
perfectly the first time, you haven’t learned anything. Don’t criticize mistakes (or let anyone
else criticize them). Encourage mistakes. Thomas Edison told us that every mistake is a
stepping stone to success and understanding. .

Swipe ideas. In the real world, everyone gets ideas from others. This is the hardest thing to
get kids to do – they will cling to their own model, even when it fails miserably, rather than
look around and see how successful models work. Encourage idea swiping. The more ideas
you swipe, the more successful you’ll be.

(Make one change at a time. We want to understand how each design element impacts the
results. Making two changes at the same time stops you from knowing which change was
effective. In science, change one at a time.)

Dare to be creative. Does a car have to have four wheels? Why? We won’t know which
model works best if everyone builds the same model. You want to be creative,
different…here’s your opportunity.

How to help students in the Build Phase

Don’t help them. Give them the freedom to do it themselves.

Their model is their model. Don’t help. Don’t allow parents to help. Let the kids do it.

During the build phase your role is to keep quiet. When they ask you: “How do I do ….”
Your answer is: “I don’t know.”

If they ask: “What should I do?” Repeat the design challenge.

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 Play/test

Here is where your skill is most valuable. Instead of telling them some facts, your job is to
ask questions that can help them understand what they need to do to improve their model.

When you ask the questions, students will try to squirm away without answering them. To
answer the questions requires thought and they won’t want to do that. Don’t let them escape
your questions. Repeat your questions if needed. Let the tension build, force them to think. If
there are outsiders present (parents, teachers, other team members), remove them. You’re not
looking for an answer – you’re trying to stimulate thinking.

Station yourself at the testing area. When they are testing ask:

 “What did you model do?” Don’t let them off without a detailed answer. If they
didn’t see, have them repeat the test until they do see. If they can’t answer this
question – if they can’t observe and report what happened – they cannot do science.
This is the first skill they need in science (and throughout much of their lives).

 “What caused your model to do that?” Don’t let them get away without a thoughtful
answer. They may not know, but they have to think. Have them point to something on
the model that they think was responsible. Associating cause with effect is the second
critical step in science. Yet rarely do we allow students to build this skill.

 You do not need to supply information here. Your job is to figure out the right
question to ask that will force them to think and understand.

 Make them measure and record. First have them estimate, then measure, then record.
Most people are terrible at estimating distance, time, and other variables. Their ability
will improve, but only if you give them the opportunity. The same thing holds true for
making measurements.

 “Did it do better this time or last?” “What one thing did you change after the last
test?” “Was it effective in making the model work better?”

 “What one thing can you do now to make it work better?”

 “Why are you standing here when you should be making that change?”

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Improve

Effective teams will do many tests/rebuilds. Each iteration of the build-test-improve cycle should
generate new understanding. You can help by asking questions: “How is that going to help.”
This is not intended to stop them from implementing a change, but to think about its potential
effectiveness. Can they explain what they are doing and why? Also, keep reminding them to
record measurements and what changes they make and to make one change at a time.

Step back. What you are really trying

to do in your teaching. Cram facts? Or,
develop skills so students can learn?

What skills, traits, and abilities are needed to do science?

Ingenuity is doing science. Teams work independently solving problems and learning. Science
requires some skills – skills that we rarely talk about, but which are critical to learning. Critical
not only to doing science, but also to living in natural and technological world

Science and logic are a fog for most kids (and adults). They don’t have experience thinking
logically. They can be swayed by strong, but illogical, arguments and can be captivated by
strongly expressed beliefs. They need analytic skills to do well in science and in life. Society
needs people who can think for themselves.

Ingenuity cultivates the following skills, traits and abilities.

1. Curiosity

2. Ability to observe and report what was observed

3. Ability to associate a possible cause with the observed effect

4. Ability to devise an experiment to determine if the possible cause is responsible

5. Ability to test and measure

6. Ability to analyze what has occurred

7. Ability to report (orally, in writing, with graphs and illustrations)

8. Intellectual honesty

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The only way they will develop these skills and traits is if you ask questions and demand
thinking.

Criticizing projects – If you feel you have to criticize a project:

1. Start with a positive comment about some feature of the model
2. Ask if they would like your critical comments. If they don’t, why bother?
3. Criticize the model, not the student
4. Suggest specific things they could do

Share
Teams take pride in their models and are anxious to show them off. This gives you an
opportunity to praise each team for at least one thing they did well. The sharing also gives you
and students the opportunity to ask questions. You don’t have to have the answers, but you do
have to demonstrate an interest in finding an answer.

Have everyone applaud each others’ work. Point out that the sharing is an opportunity to swipe
ideas for future projects.

Reflect

After an experiment or demonstration, use these debrief questions:

“What happened?
“What questions does it raise?”
“Why did it happen?”
“Will it happen the same way every time?”
“What can we learn from this?”
“Sketch the behavior over time”
“Sketch the system energy over time”

Draw a brain diagram showing: “What we learned” and have students suggest content

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After a design challenge:
1. “How did your prototype work?”
2. “How did the design idea develop?”
3. “Did the basic design change as you learned more?”
4. “Did the prototype improve throughout the activity?”
5. “How did your team make decisions?”
6. “Did everyone participate?”
7. “Did everyone enjoy the exercise?”
8. “What did you learn from testing?”
9. “Where could you use what you learned?”
10. What science can you pull into the discussion?
11. What real world phenomena or event has parallels to the activity?

Imagine

95% of all learning occurs outside a classroom

In an ideal classroom every activity would engage every student and raise his and her
interest and curiosity so they want to learn more. Instead of saying, “I’m glad that lesson is
over,” we’d like them to say, “Can I work on this at home?” Or, “Can we do this again?”

Spark their imagination by suggesting that they can continue learning suggesting how they
could do it. Point out where they can get materials. Suggest that they work at home and
bring in their improved models. Have them write up reports on their models – or creative
stories.

Image is your second chance at hitting a home run – launching students into a habit of life-
long learning. (Setting the challenge is the first). You can inspire them to do research on-
line, improve their model, or tackle a related project. Ingenuity is a launch pad for learning.
It generates interest and curiosity. You can get kids to learn so much more out of the
classroom if you only provide some encouragement, goals, or challenges. Back to where we
started: Challenges. This is how science operates.

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 What Ingenuity accomplishes

 It gets learners thinking, asking questions, and working on the project – without these
learning is superficial

 It gets the learning process started immediately – no wasted time explaining or giving
background that they won’t remember. It is more time efficient.

 It sets a solid anchor in the mind by providing a concrete experience. The theory and
vocabulary of science can become linked with that anchor and become permanent,
useful understanding

 It provides experiences in which the learner can be successful – intrinsic motivation.

Success leads to effort. Teachers further fuel the process by looking for opportunities
to praise success.

 It provides opportunities and motivation for students to continue experimenting and

learning on their own.

 It raises questions that can lead to expanding the study into other areas of science,
history, art, mathematics, etc.

We have won the battle of science education when we make every student a scientist

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 Ingenuity

Ingenuity places students in position to learn:

 within their favored intelligence type,
 at their favored pace,
 on projects of interest and relevance to them,
 by building on what they know or experience
 by putting them in control of, and being responsible, for their learning

Benefits of Ingenuity:

 The process is so engaging, that students will want to continue “inventing” and
learning.

 The learning is natural: it covers a range of topics, skills, and materials. It occurs
organically: students observe, ask questions, and seek answers.

 The learning is useful – not a collection of facts valuable only to pass a test, but it is
understanding that can be applied in real world situations. And, still pass the test.

 Ingenuity empowers students to be creative, inventing and innovative problem

solvers. It builds their self-confidence to tackle other problems.

Skills developed in Ingenuity

Teamwork
Tool use
Use of materials
Engineering
Measuring and analysis
Observation
Process of science and complex-level thinking skills:

Critical thinking skills: reasoning, judgment, logic, systemic reasoning

Creative thinking skills: divergent thinking, awareness of problems, seeing relationships between
problems

Problem solving: defining problem, selection of solution, execution, evaluation

Decision making: generating alternatives, assessment

Don’t make learning fail safe –

make it safe to fail

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 The 95% Solution - Creative Education Foundation

1. Realize that Out of School time tends to be more inspiring and powerful to lead to a life of
creativity than school time. Innovators tend to take responsibility for their own learning when
they are on their own time.

2. Create Environments that allow children to explore and experiment - safely. Environments like
backyards that look like junkyards and kitchens that are more like cooking innovation labs
inspire new ways of investigation.

3. Provide unique Experiences that surprise and allow children to see things from new
perspectives. It’s museums, shows, traveling around the world, going away to summer camp,
going to the next town, selling Girl Scout cookies or even swimming in a pool with the scent of
ripe grapes that allow one to imagine a world they know nothing about.

4. Refining the skill of Asking Questions is the fuel that ignites innovators. Without an innate
sense of curiosity and exploration, students will just give you back what you give to them. They
need to learn that uncovering knowledge is much more interesting, fun and critical than covering
what is in a standard or even innovative curriculum.

5. Have Adults encourage, support, and listen to children to better evoke a constant sense of
wonder. Aunts, uncles, teachers, parents, friends of parents and even siblings who listen and
mentor are more valuable than those who provide too much structure and rules that want students
to be someone they are not.

6. Teach how Telling Stories is a critical skill if one is to have their creations become
realized. Whether it’s sharing visually, verbally, in writing or with new technology tools, those
who can tell compelling stories that are empathic to their audiences allow their ideas to come
alive for others.

7. Understand that Emotions are critical to learning and thinking. Learning void of connecting to
the human spirit is just gathering information but to truly embrace ideas and concepts more
deeply is to gain knowledge.

8. Providing career Role Models is a powerful effort to help students understand options for what
their life could be like. They can only image what they see and if you only see rock stars and
sports heroes, that’s all they will imagine as their future.

9. Provide opportunities for Team Work and collaborating with others. How can students learn
that for most of us, life is working with others when schools spend so much time having them

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 learn, study and be measured only on their own merits?

10. Show how getting Out of One’s Comfort Zone, taking risks, persevering and being energized
by failure builds character and stamina which leads to breakthrough ideas.

11. Give students a Safety Net and Support when they fail and show them that failure is critical to
innovation. Edison invented many more light bulbs that failed than those that worked.

12. Educators and parents need to Listen More Than Talk. Be welcome to not just hearing
children, but to ask questions so you can understand and reflect and so they feel that you care
and can be a mentor for them and their explorations. This is something the internet cannot d
- See more at:
http://www.creativitypost.com/education/how_to_inspire_the_next_generation_of_creative_thin
kers_and_innovators#sthash.BUUIBkL0.dpuf

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 Good teaching
Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen.

Learning must be challenging. The best form of teaching is presenting problems to solve.
The feeling of competence encourages learning. Neural growth occurs as the result of the
process, not the solution itself.

Strong arts foundation builds creativity, concentration, problem solving, self-efficacy,

coordination, self confidence

Learners need time to reflect on what they are learning. To develop the internal brain
connections (synapses) requires 2-5 minutes after 10-15 minutes of learning.

Threats activate defense mechanisms that retard learning. Reduce threats to improve
learning. Avoid artificial deadlines.

Learners don’t need rewards for learning. They want the stimulation of new experiences.
Rewards reduce motivation and damage intrinsic motivation to learn. The brain makes its
own rewards: Positive thinking releases dopamine.

Set goals with student input. Let them have choices.

Reinforce positive self-images.

Celebrate.

Provide feedback. Peer feedback is more motivating than teacher feedback.

When emotions are engaged after learning, memory is improved.

Aerobic conditioning improves memory. As physical exercise increases, so do test

results.

Learning improves when the learning is relevant to students. The brain makes
connections with existing networks and ties in new learning with what already knows.

For younger learners, learning must be hands-on, experiential, and relevant to establish
brain patterns.

Ask students: “How do you know that?” to help them understand connections

Give global overviews at the start of a lesson.

Open and close with the three most important concepts

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 At close of session, have students share in groups what they learned. Have them make
mind maps.

At end of lesson, have students discuss relevance.

Improve test results by matching the environments in the learning center and test center.

“Yes you can,” is a powerful motivator.

Drink lots of water

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I kill creative thinking when:
 I kill creativity when I assign grades without providing feedback
 I kill creativity when I demonstrate rather than assist students doing hands-on learning
 I kill creativity when I show a sample solution rather than defining the problem
 I kill creativity when I praise neatness and conformity rather than originality
 I kill creativity when I encourage freedom without focus
 I kill creativity when I make suggestions rather than asking open-ended questions
 I kill creativity when I protect students from making mistakes

Taken from: Eleven classroom creativity killers by Marvin Bartel, 2001

https://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/creativitykillers.html

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References
A partial listing

TED Talks
Sir Ken Robinson – the most engaging videos you will see:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson
Sugata Mitra – just when you thought you understood the learning process:
https://www.ted.com/search?q=sugata+mitra

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-mitra

Books
John Spencer and A.J. Juliani – Launch. Using design thinking to boost creativity and bring out the maker
in every student.

Howard Gardner – The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Eric Jensen Teaching with the Brain in Mind

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses

Tony Wagner Creating Innovators

Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering

Dr. Seuss And to Think I saw it on Mulberry Street

Crockett Johnson Harold and the Purple Crayon
National Academy Press: A Framework for K-12 Science Education:
https://www.nap.edu/read/13165/chapter/1

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Articles
Monthly Creative Learning Activities newsletter – Sign up to receive your own copy
at https://www.kidsinvent.com/newsletter.asp
John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking - http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/2010/6/the-95-
percent-solution

Eric Majur: Memorization or Understanding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn1DLFnbGOo

The Creativity Crisis: http://www.newsweek.com/creativity-crisis-74665
When Finnish Teachers Work in America’s Public School:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/11/when-finnish-teachers-work-in-americas-
public-schools/508685/

Sources:
 Kelvin.com: motors, clip leads, propellers, dowels, wheels, potentiometers
 Craftparts.com: wood wheels, dowels
 Creative curriculum modules: www.kidsinvent.com
 Monthly newsletter, Creative Learning Activities, www.invention-center.com To
subscribe: [email protected]

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 Ed Sobey, PhD.
Biography

Scientist Ph.D. and MS in oceanography, Oregon State University

Research consultant on Arctic sea ice, oil spills, and ocean currents

Author of On science and technology, inventing, learning, fitness and backpacking

31 books

Director of Founding Executive Director, National Inventors Hall of Fame

5 museums
Director of three other science centers and one children’s museum

President, Ohio Museums Association

Lecturer, Museum Management, University of Washington

Creator of traveling exhibits displayed in Malaysia, Norway, Sweden, Canada,

US, China, UAE

Explorer Expeditions: Antarctic Winter Sea Ice Project; trans-Pacific sail; three Alaska
Sea Kayak Expeditions; a dozen oceanographic research expeditions, and three
underwater specimen collecting expeditions

Fellow, The Explorers Club

Exhibition Research: Gobi Desert, Peru, Kenya, Egypt
Travel: all seven continents, 99 countries, all oceans

Presenter Instructor, Semester at Sea circumnavigation 2008, 2013, 2015

University of Virginia – oceanography and methods of teaching science,
weather and climate, environmental science

Host and Executive Producer The Idea Factory, KFSN-ABC TV

Co-host, Blow the Roof Off, Ohio Public Television

Shipboard presenter: Cape Horn Passage, Panama Canal, Baltic Sea, Caribbean
Sea, Trans-Atlantic, Los Angeles to Tahiti to Auckland

Professional training for science teachers in 30 countries

Founder Founder, National Toy Hall of Fame www.toyhalloffame.org

Co-founder, Kids Invent! www.kidsinvent.com, www.kidsinvent.org

Co-founder, Camp Invention www.invent.org

Awards Fulbright Senior Specialist in Science Education – posted to Sweden, Indonesia

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Ed’s Books (partial listing)
 Car models that zoom: Creativity in Motion
 The Motorboat Book
 Unscrewed, Salvage and Reuse Motors, Gears, Switches, and More from Your Old
Electronics
 Solar Cells and Renewable Energy Experiments,
 Radio-controlled Car Experiments
 Electric Motor Experiments
 The Way Toys Work
 Rocket-powered Science.
 Loco-Motion: Making Models
 Inventing Toys: Kids having fun while learning science
 Fantastic Flying Fun with Science,
 Wacky Water Fun with Science
 Young Inventors at Work
 Just Plane Smart
 Car Smarts: Activities for the Open Road
 Wrapper Rockets and Trombone Straws: Science at Every Meal
 Inventing Stuff

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