Brainstorming

"Our Neighborhood" Project

The "Our Neighborhood" project introduces kids to structured ways of thinking and expressing ideas about the people, places and things that matter most to them. The lessons build on the information and experiences that the children and the instructors already have about the culture around them. Click below to see the lesson plan for each of the eight sessions.

Goals:

Children doing this project will achieve the following goals:

Increased vocabulary as they describe and come to understand some of the people, places, events and things in their family, peer group and community
Increased ability to perform such social skills as sharing, listening, taking turns and helping others
New factual and qualitative information about the people and places in their neighborhood that are important to children
Increased ability to present concrete and abstract information in multimedia formats
Increased skill in using multimedia authoring software and the Internet

Community Mapping: Collecting and Organizing Data from Surveys

In this project, learners do a survey and create a spreadsheet using the data. Keep in mind that you could also do a survey project just with pen and paper, or you could have the group take photos to illustrate their findings and build a Web page with the results.

Recommended Time:

If your learners are already familiar with the spreadsheet software, you can probably complete a simple, warm-up version of this project in two 30-minute sessions. If you are still introducing the software, however, plan on working on the various elements of this project for 15 to 30 minutes a day over a week or more. A more extended version of the project with a broader survey base might take longer.

Goals:

Learn about surveys
Learn more about the people and other attributes of their community
Gather, analyze, and present data
Introduce or practice using spreadsheet software
Research an inquiry-based project

Make a Book

Students will create a class book. Students will use visual mapping to brainstorm the theme of the book. Each student will create a page in the book.

Recommended Time:

2 days

Brainstorming the Web

Description: This Web site is devoted to grapic organizing. Brainstorming is one of the concepts presented here, and this page shows how to use a graphic organizer to aid in the brainstorming process. Included are suggestions for success (e.g., don’t worry about spelling or organization while brainstorming; just keep writing).

Please note: As of this writing (9/2006) Many of the links to outside resources do not appear to work. However, the site does contain good information on the brainstorming process.

Link:

Graphic.org

Brainstorming - Creative Problem Solving from MindTools.com

Description: Primarily geared to adults, most of the material here applies to young people as well. The site provides some basic rules for facilitating a brainstorming session and describes what can be achieved through both individual and group brainstorming techniques.