23.7.06

"Outside the Box" Thinking





Link to
Museum of Science site






quote:
”What is the best approach to solving a problem? From kindergarten on, most children are taught that there is one optimal answer to any question. And that they should work logically, step by step, to reach that prize. In many cases, this tactic works. But in other situations, the newest concepts, wisest insights and most creative solutions arise only when people abandon established approaches and habitual ways of thinking. When a tire designer learns, from studying the feet of frogs, how to get the best traction on a wet road, he discovers a strategy that the mere application of logic never would have provided.Yet we are not teaching children how to solve problems in unconventional ways.

Outside-the-box thinking can be difficult to achieve in adulthood, because often it has been driven out of us over the course of our education and professional experience

endquote (from: Scientific American Mind)

(Added the Bold for enhancement ... wholeheartedly agree)

Communicating Science can be Fun



... learning about educational writer Mark Bourne’s work.





One of my students is now in Boston, can't wait to learn more about her visit to the Boston Museum of Science. In the meantime, I found some Virtual Exhibits to explore, and some fun Activities to Download for educators and young (or not so young) “explorers” to do at home.

The chosen "inspiring" link today: Teaching with Technology at the Museum of Science, Science Learning Network, ...see ”Welcome to the Universe” ... which led me to this great movie clip I plan to discuss with some students.

The clip is embedded on the site: Cosmos in a Computer which is a site from 1995(!) archived by NCSA.(The National Center for Supercomputing Applications). Once again, access to the web facilitates quite a bit of “travel in time”, “travel in mind”.

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