Initial Brainstorming
After finishing reading through the problem, it is time for the team to figure out what they want their solution to be about via brainstorming. Remember, it is not up to you to determine what the team’s solution is, it is up to the team. With that in mind, here are some effective brainstorming tips.
- Let everyone get a chance to speak. There will be some members who dominate the discussion, make sure the quiet ones get to take as well, they can have great ideas too.
- Encourage ideas. Ideas snowball, and a seemingly crazy idea can turn into a great one.
- Paired with the tip above, don’t let team members shut down ideas. If team members feel unappreciated or ganged up against, they’ll have a miserable time, and a lot of these feelings form during brainstorming.
- If necessary, use a talking stick. Pick an object in the room. Whoever is holding that object can speak, everybody else has to be silent. This lets the quieter team members speak.
- You can record ideas and remind the teams of them later. Because they were the ones to think of them initially, this isn't outside assistance.
- After they have a couple of ideas they like, go back through and reread the problem –ESPECIALLY SCORING. Would their idea get points, or do they need to modify it?
- Take breaks. Being creative is tough work, and a lot of time 20 minutes playing around outside will give students the energy they need to be creative. My team would always run outside and “brainstorm” there, and by brainstorm I mean yell “BRAINSTORM” while jumping on the trampoline.
- Verbal spont problems are good to use to get them thinking creatively at the beginning of meetings.
BRAINSTOrMING AFTER WRITING THE INITIAL SCRIPT
While the majority of brainstorming takes place at the beginning of the year, there is still a surprising amount that happens in the construction phase of the solution, when you actually begin to make props, scenery, etc. Here are some tips for that time period!
The entire team doesn’t need to make every decision, however big decisions may be important enough to get everybody’s opinion on. Ex: Deciding what the backdrop should look like might be a team decision, but figuring out what specifically they want on it and how to do that might just be a team member or two.
If the team doesn’t know what they want to make a part of their solution out of, taking them to the store and walking up and down the aisles looking at different objects is a good way to get them thinking about objects that they would not normally consider.
The entire team doesn’t need to make every decision, however big decisions may be important enough to get everybody’s opinion on. Ex: Deciding what the backdrop should look like might be a team decision, but figuring out what specifically they want on it and how to do that might just be a team member or two.
If the team doesn’t know what they want to make a part of their solution out of, taking them to the store and walking up and down the aisles looking at different objects is a good way to get them thinking about objects that they would not normally consider.