Activity One for: Establishing Trust

Enhancing Middle School and High School Student Group Electronic Collaborations Using Creative Brainstorming

Goals:

• To provide students with an opportunity that develops creativity and trust building within an electronic collaborative community.
• To provide students with an electronic activity that models the brainstorming strategy known as morphological analysis.

Description:

· Students will work in groups of four.

· Students will agree on a time and a chat forum for this first activity.

· Students will determine the order of their posted responses…who will begin typing their first idea, which team member will post their idea second, third and fourth.

· This is a round robin activity…each student must post their idea in the agreed upon order – and no idea can be repeated a second time. Each response is to be unique/original/different from the ideas already posted.

· THE TASK: CREATE A NEW TYPE OF POTATO CHIP! USING “MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS”

· Provided ONLY as an example: To develop a new type of Fritos ® Corn Chip:

o Team members develop a list of attributes/characteristics of the current/traditional Fritos ® Corn Chip:

orange in color

salty

made of corn

rectangular in shape

packaged in bag

o From this list develop a list of general attributes for a corn chip:

Color

Flavor

Shape

Texture

Coating

Packaging

o Each group member contributes at least three novel ideas for each category of attributes

Color: Purple, Blue, Polka-dots

Flavor: Chili, Spaghetti, Pizza

Shape: Stars, Daisy, Triangle

Texture: Ridges, Holes, Pebbly

Coating: Chocolate, Garlic, Jalapeno

Packaging: On a kabob-stick, Pez-like dispenser, frito necklace

o After each group has generated your NEW combinations, select the three best new products based on the following criteria:

Uniqueness

Marketability to your age group

· All group members should contribute to the discussion. All group members should reach consensus regarding the selections…do not leave the chat room until you have done so.

· Post your final decisions to the class discussion board. Determine if any other groups created similar products/potato chips!

Assessment:

· Each individual student will post an anonymous response (short paragraph) that addresses the following two items:

1. Describe a recent assignment that required creativity/imagination where you might have been able to use/modify this technique to complete the assignment.

2. Describe the single most important factor that contributed to the successful completion of this assignment by your electronic community.