A THINKING ROUTINE FROM PROJECT ZERO, HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Slow Complexity Capture - Find, Capture, Explain, Wonder
A routine for slowing down to look closely at complexity.
Find: Find an object or scene that captures your eye. In a word or phrase, say what it is.
Capture: Take some time to look carefully at your item. Capture it by slowly making a drawing of
it or taking pictures of it from different angles or perspectives. Don’t worry about creating a ‘good’
or realistic drawing or picture. The goal is to use drawing or picture-taking to help you look closely
and notice details. Spend at least 5-10 minutes observing through drawing, looking, and/or photo-
graphing.
Explain: After you have visually captured your item, write a paragraph (or tell a friend) about how
it is complex.
Wonder: What new ideas and questions do you have about your item?
Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage?
The routine helps students slow down and use the medium of drawing or photography as a tool for looking
closely. By taking time to make extended observations, students will begin to see the complexity inherent in the
design, composition and constitution of even everyday objects and scenes.
Application: When and where can I use it?
The routine mainly emphasizes the complexity of parts and interactions, but it may also help student see other
kinds of complexity.
Launch: What are some tips for starting and using this routine?
If students are uncomfortable with drawing, emphasize that the purpose of the routine is to help students make
careful observations, not to produce polished work. If students don’t know where to start, offer some simple
strategies or techniques. For example, create a grid of 4 or 6 squares and ask students to fill in each square with a
quick sketch. Or have students make a contour drawing by drawing the outlines of something without lifting their
pencil from the paper—and perhaps by looking only at the object, not at the drawing or their hand.
The routine can also be varied. Students can capture an object or item from several different perspectives (as
in the picture above); they can focus in on a single aspect of something and capture it in careful detail; they
can make a rough sketch of an entire scene; they can make multiple sketches of the same scene. Additionally,
students can vary their work configurations. For example, they can work in pairs, or small groups in which each
person creates a capture of the same item from a different angle or perspective. Then they share their captures
with one another, discuss them, and together describe the way in which their item is complex.
When responding to student work, emphasize the observational qualities of students’ drawing, rather than their
technical qualities. Support students’ explanations of complexity by using language and ideas from the ‘Ways
Things Can be Complex’ page. Support their wonderings by appreciating the many different kinds of questions
they have, and invite them to explain how observing through drawing/photographing helped them to ask new
questions.
Share your experience with this thinking routine on social media using the hashtags #PZThinkingRoutines and #SlowComplexityCapture.
HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
PZ
CONNECT
This thinking routine was developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
as part of the PZ Connect project with generous support from Independent Schools Victoria (AU).
Explore more Thinking Routines at pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines
© 2019 President and Fellows of Harvard College and Project Zero. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND). This license allows users to share this work
with others, but it cannot be used commercially. To reference this work, please use the following: The Slow Complexity Capture thinking routine was developed by Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
