Shelley+Carson


 * Creative Brains: Maximizing Imagination and Innovation in Students**


 * Imagination-**-the ability to conceptualize that which does not yet exist


 * Innovation-**-production of a new process, product, ideas that lead to substantial positive change


 * Creativity**--ability to take bits of information and synthesize them into novel or original ideas or products that are in some way useful or adaptive(encompasses both imagination and innovation)


 * Creativity is...**
 * our survival mechanism as a species....just as true today as it has ever been
 * our communication mechanism
 * enrichment and comfort
 * sexy! (creativity is how we advertise our "fitness" to potential mates...ranks just behind kindness and sociability in terms of attractive characteristics)
 * a way to achieve happiness


 * **Creativity on 3 Levels:** If **you** become more creative as a person, you will become more creative as a **teacher**, and you will help your **students** become more creative.


 * Conversation is, by nature, creative, as it is adaptable and spontaneous, and you are taking bits of information, putting them into a new form, producing something new and (hopefully) useful


 * There is a difference between creativity and talent. (IMPORTANT). Talent is a skill/set of aptitudes that fits a particular situation.


 * Highly creative people activate certain brain patterns when thy are engaged in creative work. They are good at flexibly changing these activation patterns. By learning how to achieve certain brain activation states, we can achieve greater creativity.
 * We can actually learn through training and practice to change our activation patterns
 * Creative Process (Graham Wallas, //The Art of Thought//)
 * **Preparation**
 * Gathering Knowledge
 * Learn broadly, from many different fields.
 * Specific knowledge is sometimes important
 * Problem-Finding
 * Search for and the definition of a problem that can be solved with a creative idea
 * **Creative Solution**
 * Trial and Error: the deliberate pathway to creativity; deliberate, conscious work
 * Thomas Edison "I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that did not work."
 * Incubation and Insight: the aha moment-you put something on the back burner, and then it comes to you
 * Tesla (alternating current)
 * Mozart: one of his symphonies came to him fully written in his head after he had had a good meal and was riding a carriage back home
 * **Evaluation**
 * Is it valid? Is it helpful? What works and what doesn't?
 * **Elaboration**
 * Working out the details, filling in the original idea with important details
 * **Implementation**
 * If your work doesn't get out there, it won't be novel or useful


 * Brain Activation Patterns (Brainsets) Associated with ****Creativity**

Connect Reason Envision Absorb Transform Evaluate Stream


 * Reason and Evaluation Brainsets**
 * Focused Attention
 * Sequential Reasoning
 * Consciously directed thought
 * Critical judgments
 * High activation of executive centers of the brain
 * Convergent Thinking
 * Detail Examination
 * Step-by-Step Problem Solving


 * Absorb Brainset**
 * Suspension of judgement (turn down the critical thinking aspects of the brain)
 * High response to novelty (what is novel in my environment and in my thinking?)
 * Cognitive Disinhibition
 * Deemphasis on pre-frontal cortex
 * It is important to see what others don't see. What is novel about everyday life?
 * Alexander Fleming noticed that mold did not grow in a particular area (led to penicillin)
 * George de Mestral noticed burrs that were attached to his coat and his dogs--this led to the creation of velcro
 * Make a list of everything that annoys you--can you look at them non-judgmentally?
 * Doing mindful activities gets us into the "absorb" brainset
 * Show a picture--what are three questions that cannot be answered by looking at the picture itself--send them home to answer those questions
 * Openness to experience
 * Seeing things from another perspective: How would someone else look at this?
 * State of receptiveness
 * Alert, nonjudgmental, looking for novelty
 * This is the precursor to the aha moment
 * Right before going to sleep, right after we awaken, right after strenuous activity--times that we are most open to this


 * Envision Brainset**
 * Mental Imagery
 * "What if Thinking"
 * Cognitive Disinhibition (like in the absorb brainset)
 * Skills associated with the Envision Brainset
 * Imagination
 * Fantasy Play
 * Visualization


 * Connect Brainset**
 * Activation of associational networks
 * Forming of associative combinations
 * When you broadly activate associational networks, you are more likely
 * Degrees of Separation
 * In a dictionary, find two words that are not related--go from three degrees to two degrees to one degree
 * Associated with divergent thinking: using contents of memory to generate a large variety and quantity of solutions to an open-ended problem


 * It is extremely important to move flexibly among these brainsets....**
 * Brainstorm followed by evaluation
 * Crossword puzzle followed by story-writing
 * Add "what if" to daily exercises