Our brainstorming routine needs some work. Students are so eager to start their own creative projects that they aren’t willing to try to complete a ‘practice’ project to work some of the kinks out. I’ve tried different ways of assigning them but have an idea – to roll the practice project into the brainstorming for the final project.

I’ll break the class into ‘brainstorming teams’ of engineers or designers (this year). Each of the engineers/designers will be assigned to make at least one of the practice projects. Make more if you have time, help others. Then, with the knowledge and actual projects in hand, brainstorm the final creative projects for each student. I can give lots of prompts, combine projects randomly, or show clips from past projects that were using the same examples!

This will also merge nicely with the ‘creative class culture’ I am working to establish, students will have a place to practice giving/getting feedback and supporting each other.

There are more practical classroom strategies to implement – time to make a list tonight and get to work tomorrow!